City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. I now call the April 21st, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. First off, we'll start with a roll call and we'll take a moment to take roll call of the council members by position number. Please say here when the city clerk calls your name. Thank you. Council member Angulari here. Mayor Thompson here. Council member Alderks here. Council member Kurt here. Council member Miles here. Council member Dodd here. Council member Alcra here. Did I say council member? Thank you so much. All right. We um are testing out a new meeting agenda. So, we're going to start off or new meeting process agenda. I don't know what we want to call it. Um we're going to start off with a city manager review of the agenda. City manager.

Thank you, mayor, and good evening, city council members. And yes, as the mayor mentioned, um this will be the only time I give the disclaimer, but with last week's approval of the new protocol manual, we inserted an item at this point before council considers the agenda for review where um I'll give a brief summary of what's on tonight's agenda. So with that, tonight we will be issuing three proclamations and so welcome to the groups that are here to accept them. We're thrilled to have you and that'll be followed by an opportunity for public comment. Um also then on tonight's city manager report, we do have two staff presentations. one about the community budget survey results and another about the tree code update uh schedule to know where things are at in that process. I know there's a lot of people in the community who are following that one closely. Um there's also one contract for consideration and vote on ordinances and resolutions which will be a brief presentation for you followed by two study sessions. one to discuss the parks and recreation open space plan or pros plan and one to discuss uh to follow up from last fall's discussion on a council priority which is downtown parking. Finally, uh tonight's meeting also includes a consent agenda which has approval of the April 7th and 14th meeting minutes and then two uh two property related matters. one, a transfer property between the Northshore Parks and Recreation Service Area and the city and then as well as some property acquisitions related to the Both Way multimodal improvement project. And the staff recommendation on on the consent calendar is for approval of all of those items. With that, I'll turn things back over to the city council for consideration of approval of the agenda.

Thank you very much. Um, does anybody have any changes to the agenda? I'll just say we should keep this. I like the like preview and guide. So, thank you, city manager.

I do too. Um, we'll move on to public engagement opportunities. You can vote for both spokesfish. I've never said that word before. Survive the Sound returns April 27th through May 1st following the salmon and steelhead migration as they race to the Pacific Ocean. But first, we need your help choosing the fish to represent team both in this epic journey. You can cast your vote for your favorite fish by Wednesday, April 22nd. Celebrate Earth Month throughout April. As Earth Month comes to a close, celebrate with us and our partners with activities for the whole family. Learn, connect, and make a difference for our environment. The upcoming event is Earth Day Celebration at BL Ble Park, Saturday, April 25th, 10 to 4 p.m. Grow Your Small Business. Applications are open for entrepreneurs and small businesses to participate in the Pop Shops on Maine small business incubator program. This program helps small businesses bring their vision to life in the heart of downtown both. Apply by May 11th, 2026. Next up, we have um a couple of proclamations. And first, before we get to that, we are going to recognize the dance assistant leadership program team recognition. Um, we have the pleasure of welcoming both's unified dance studio to hear about their youth leadership initiative and recognize the dedicated members of the DALP team who have stepped up to mentor young students, foster community, and develop leadership skills. Trina Burton Burstein is here to introduce and celebrate the team members and tell us more about their program.

Thank you for having us. Yes, my name is Trina Burton Bernstein and I own Unified Dance Studio right here in downtown Bathl on Main Street and I am so happy and privileged to be here. Thank you for having us spokesfish. So now you don't feel alone. That's the first time I've ever said that as well. Um and thank you for the little giggles there. So um I just want to talk a little bit about DAP. is our dance assistant leadership program. And I created this program for our dancers to bridge the gap between being a student and a leader. I wanted to help foster their confidence in the dance studio, taking on responsibility within their um within their means and also just building a lifelong passion for mentorship and both on and off the dance floor, letting them know that we are uh the dance studio. uh as the owner, I'm behind them 100% in the studio, outside of the studio, on the dance floor, off the dance floor. And I really think our um our city should recognize that what our students are doing here in downtown Bath, what we're doing on Main Street, we are fostering and building community. Our dance parents, you'll see them after class, um engaging in the restaurants and bars and activities while their dancers and students come and spend time with us. So, we've really built a wonderful community here in downtown Bathl. I also want to take just a moment for each one of our doubts. We're missing about two more who have musical theater obligations in at their middle schools. But the doubts who were able to attend today, they're going to come up, introduce themselves, and talk a little bit about what doubt means for them. Keep in mind that these dancers have taken a curated program that I've developed um a video recording that they have to follow and complete works worksheets and um check marks in the video programming of how to become a dalp. Once they finish that course, it takes about two weeks online. Then

they're required to be in the dance classroom with um one of our instructors and they help take attendance. They help a new trial student come in if they're look crying. Um, they help with the choreography. They may help help dancers find their first pair of tap shoes. And they're just there to help the young ones feel safe and that it's going to be okay for their first day of dance. Um, Dallas, would you please rise and join me at the podium? They're going to go one by one. They're a little nervous, so give them some support. I think we should recognize them now with a round of applause for doing this. They're accustomed to dancing with anywhere from 300 to 600 people in an audience when they're dancing on stage, but this is their first time um having something to do with our city council and local government. So, I think this is a huge win for them and I'm already proud of them. Hello, my name is Lily Fleming and one thing that I really love about our DALP uh program is that just working with the younger kids in general is such an honor because I get to share my love for dance and uh my love for the community that we have at our studio with the younger kids and it's so special to watch them grow over time with how they dance and just how they are in general. Um, and it's just an amazing opportunity and I'm so glad that it's an opportunity that we have. Thank you, Lily.

Hi, my name is Leah Dar and the reason why I applied to be a DPER and why I love it so much is because I'm amazing with kids, I love them with all my heart and teaching new things puts a smile on my face along with all the others, too. Hi, my name is Addison Stro and my favorite thing about the dance assistant leadership program is that it's just like a fun way to be able to connect and engage with the kids, but it's also um a way to sort of have like a step up from just being a student in the studio environment. Hello, my name is Annie Medina and I love being a doppel because I get to see the joy light up on other dancers faces when we get to do something we all love and enjoy at Unified, which is dance. Thank you for having us.

And if you guys want to hang out and get a picture um after the next two proclamations, we'll do all the pictures at the same time. Next up, we have a proclamation for fentinel awareness day. Whereas fentinel awareness day is a day of action aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of illegally made fentinel which is the primary driver of the increase in overdose deaths in the United States. And whereas the Sawyer Colbertson project was founded in a honor of Sawyer Olivia Anne Colulbertson whose life was tragically cut short at just 17 years old when she was unknowingly given a substance containing pure fentinel. And whereas the Sawyer Colbertson Project is dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills, educating youth, families, and community members, advocating for prevention, harm reduction, and life-saving resources, and honoring lives lost, and supporting those still fighting. And whereas fentinel awareness day is not just a memorial, it is a call to action to educate communities about the dangers of fentinel through awareness campaigns, workshops, and accessible resources designed to save lives. And whereas instead of stigmatizing drug use, we must take action to emphasize the risks of encountering illegally manu illicitly manufactured fentinel, learn the signs of overdose, and be prepared to respond to overdoses to prevent losing more people to the epidemic. Now therefore, I, Mason Thompson, mayor of the city of both, do hereby proclaim April 28th, 2026 as Fentinel Awareness Day in both to educate the public about the dangers of fentanel and work to prevent its harm through compassionate action by prioritizing early intervention, education, and family centered support. And we have Laya Colbertson here to accept.

Yes. Thank you so much. Good evening, mayor, city council members, city staff, and members of our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this proclamation and for seeing not just the Sawyer Culerson project, but the love and purpose behind it. SCP was birthed out of tremendous pain, a pain no parent ever expects to carry. My daughter Sawyer died from fentanyl poisoning at just 17 years old after accessing it right here in both. And that is a pain I would not wish on any parent, any sibling, or any family. The only way I know how to live with that pain is to pour my heart and soul into making sure no other family has to walk this road. But this story didn't begin with tragedy. It began with service. During CO, I was called out to the Ever Gospel Mission to do a safety inspection on their gas meter. As I approached the building, my heart broke. Families line the streets, parents, children, people with no access to food. I went home and shared this story with my kids and together we came up with a game plan. We pulled our resources. We spoke to our community and our kitchen became an assembly line. We were making 80 sack lunches up to 3 days a week. As a single mom, I couldn't do this alone. But something beautiful happened when our community came together. We delivered food, hot coffee, and new socks. My daughter Sawyer, who had the biggest heart for people, was deeply moved by this. She would beg to go out and serve again. And she would say, "Mom, they just want to be treated like normal people, seen and heard." That was Sawyer. After her passing, I knew the mission was bigger. I knew Sawyer was not done and I knew her love for people had to keep moving through this world.

That is why the Sawyer Culverson project exists. To meet basic human needs, to raise awareness about fentanyl poisoning, and to remind people that every life has value. This week, that mission continues in a very real way. On Monday the 27th, we invite the community to support our Mod Pizza fundraiser in Lynwood. a simple way to gather, share a meal, and give back in Sawyer's name. And then on Tuesday, the 28th, we will hold our fourth annual Fentanel awareness day right here in both from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. A full day dedicated to education, remembrance, and prevention and hope. This proclamation from the city of both tells grieving families they are not alone. It tells our youth that service matters. It tells our community that love when poured into action can save lives. So my call to action tonight is this. Stand with us, show up, volunteer, donate, share our mission. Help us see, hear, and honor those who feel invisible. and to the city of Bathl. Thank you for recognizing this mission for honoring Sawyer and for helping to ensure that her legacy of compassion, service, and humanity continues. Sawyer's story is one of love and with this community beside us, her light will keep shining. Thank you. All right, next up we have a proclamation for Mina Heritage Month. Whereas the city of both is home to a growing vibrant community of Middle Eastern and North African immigrants, refugees, and descendants from different cultures, faiths, and lived experiences who came to both. And whereas throughout their history in the United States, Middle Eastern and North African-Americans have generously shared

their culture, music, and food, and contributed the economy and society of communities, having brought with them their resilient family values, strong work ethic, and dedication to education and diversity, which have added strength to our democracy. And whereas Middle Eastern and North African-Americans are an important part of our community and continue to make noteworthy and lasting contributions through their leadership in business, government, higher education, medicine, military service, law, social justice, and many other arenas. And whereas mistrust and fear often threaten to divide us, but connecting with communities from diverse backgrounds helps us realize our commonalities and strive for new levels of compassion, understanding, and love for our fellow human beings irrespective of lived experiences. And whereas Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month is necessary to address the misconceptions, misinformation, misrepresentation, Islamophobia, and discrimination against Middle Eastern and North African-Americans by celebrating their accomplishments, culture, and people, as well as the need for public education, awareness, and policies that are culturally relevant to describe, discuss, and address the impacts of being a Middle Eastern or North African-American in all aspects of society. Now therefore, I, Mason Thompson, mayor of the city of both, do hereby proclaim April as Mina Heritage Month in the city of both and encourage our community members to show support and solidarity to our Middle Eastern and North African friends, families, and neighbors as we celebrate their heritage. And we have um Yeshar Cheyenne here to accept. Thank you, Mayor Thompson, and the city council of both. Uh, we really

appreciate you passing this on behalf of the Mina community, the Middle Eastern and North African community. We are not a monolith. We are a very diverse group. We come from many different backgrounds and cultures while also having much in common. Many of us understand the collective e efficacy we gain by coming together as a broader Mina community. As this community continues to experience extreme forms of mar marginalization, lack of representation, and even great misrepresentation, we thank the city of both for recognizing our community by joining with us in proclaiming that April is Mina Heritage Month. This is a significant step in the effort toward greater representation for the Mina community and we thank the city of both for supporting us in this endeavor. Thank you. All right, we're going to come around there and we can do pictures and we'll do it in the order in which we went. Oh. Oh, another Oh, shoot. I'm sorry.

Please continue.

Hello. Hi, everyone. This is Moa Hibbroniroy. Thank you so much for recognizing April as Middle Eastern and North African herit heritage month. It means a lot to me. Both gave me a family and a new beginning after I lost my family to a war and displacement in 2013. Ashkalan, Arya and Theran lives within me and in the current moment I continue to witness pain. I know both is is the home to southwest Asian and North African community. Many youths like me who carry only hope. We see a future. As I stand here today, I see myself as that 13 years old boy who once felt lonely. And now I feel that both knows my history, my identity, and sees me as an equal human being. Thank you so much. Hello everyone. This is Sara Mojira and I'm here since September 2025. I'm Italian with Iranian roots. I came across Yashar's mission to recognize the Mina month in October 2025 while I was engaging with the Iranian community to understand whether they feel fairly represented especially since the Mina uh category is not yet officially recognized in the US census. So Yashar explained me his mission and it felt really strongly reflect the rights and the needs of the Mina community in Washington state. So thank you. Thank you so much for your dedication. I know that you put a lot of effort to this mission and um this is a great accomplishment for our community and for yourself and I truly hope that this will be one of the many victory of the Amina community. Thank you.

Yes.

All right. Next up is public comment. The city has accepted public comment in writing as well as accepted signups for those who wish to speak at tonight's meeting. Written comments submitted to the city clerk no later than 3 p.m. today were forwarded to all city council members and are part of the record. When the clerk calls your name, you'll have 3 minutes to speak. Please note that council will receive your input, but we do not do not engage in discussion of these topics. Staff will make note of items requiring follow-up. City clerk.

Thank you, Mayor Thompson. We received one written comment uh which has been forwarded to all council members. That's from Shannon Learge requesting updates to BNC on critical area studies. I did not receive any signups for um live public comment. However, if there's anybody in the audience tonight that wishes to speak, please step to the podium, state your name, and you'll have three minutes. And if you are online, please use the raise hand function, and I will panel you in for three minutes as well. Hello everybody. Um, first I would like to thank the Bath City Council. Um, this is a very meaningful uh day for me. But when I see you giving city proclamations, in my mind it feels like um the world isn't always perfect, but we have a commitment to being as perfect as we can for each other. Um and it's that kind of attitude that to me means community. Community might not agree on every little thing. Some little kids want to ebike. some other adults don't want them on their lawn. But the intent that we can work it out is the fabric that makes a strong community. Um I too uh am a co-founder with Lita of the Serbison project of Save the Kids and um one of the things that we were trying to do different um is to sort of emulate the uh the model that communities put forward when they're trying to do well for each other. And uh to do that we had to realize why we couldn't wait personally. Everybody in our um organization

structure is people of lived experience who've lost loved ones uh to fentanyl. Um and uh in my case I had three loved ones lost as well and none of them were fentanyl addicts. And so it's interesting when I see things when there's a lack of community people don't understand each other. And so when you think of fentanyl awareness people just think it's just those others that they don't want to see on the sidewalk. But my niece was a very intelligent teenage woman who was coming into her own. Um, my cousin was the son of a fire chief and a comedian with severe asthma and couldn't take it when somebody's marijuana was mixed with fentanyl in his presence. Everybody else, it was not a problem. For him, it was fatal. And so, we're not a fentanyl aware family. I am a drug and alcohol treatment specialist. Um I was involved with save the kids for many years before that and I wasn't aware of the reach of fentanyl and so I just want to thank you uh for this proclamation for the wonderful people who are bringing community dalp is beautiful. We've incorporated dance and some of those things into our programs and just the model of people working together and an accepting environment where people can heal, they can grow, they can understand and live with each other and I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? Please step to the podium, state your name. You'll have three minutes. both are going together.

Good evening, city council. Uh, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Tulika and I bring to you my colleague Kungjin and we represent the Indian-American community services that uh serves the needs of the greater Seattle area and uh for uh it started as in India Association of Western Washington but now we have opened all borders and do not um restrict the services to anyone um you know person uh be it race or um uh there's no religion or any barrier for orientation either and um we are secular and we have uh been around in uh serving the community for 40 years. Uh the two of us are here representing crisis care and small business services but we also do other things like uh senior services, early childhood, mental health, legal services and I will give the stage to Kungjin.

Thank you Tulika. Uh hi everyone. I'm Kungjan. I work with Tulika at Indian-American Community Services. I focus on we focus on domestic violence and crisis services where clients face barriers to work, visas, abusive relationships, financial instability, and reluctance to leave their home due to social and emotional reasons. Domestic violence survivors often find themselves trapped in a cycle of abuse due to lack of safe housing options. Our crisis clients require intensive case management services to ensure we can empower them with listening skills, coping strategies, culturally nuanced approaches to empower them with easy to access job, rental assistance, child care and mental health support. A lot of DV survivors don't get the kind of support one would expect expect from their parents because of the taboo associated with divorce back in India. So we also tried to find that void for them. We upskilled them by providing them vocational training and help them find suitable jobs. It's like helping a baby taking the first step so that they can run one day. In survivor focused comm housing, residents share their experience, support uh to one another and inspire confidence. They become a network of strength, learning for each others, learning from each other's resilience and determination. As they rebuild their lives, survivors become role models for others facing similar challenges. Their stories of survival and empowerment inspire hope and encourage fellow residents to seek heal seek and heal.

Through our endless efforts, we at Indian-American Community Services have created a community of like uh of like 90 plus women who have gone through such experiences. Because we work closely with the community, we are seeking a clear and urgent need of physical space in Bottle. We serve many families in the city, yet they are required to travel to Belleview to access our services, creating barriers of time, transportation, and and access. A dedicated space in both will allow us to meet families where they are, build trust and better understanding and to respond their needs. It would enable us to host community cafes, provide one-on-one support, and create a safe and a welcoming environment where individuals feel seen, heard, and supported. This is not just a convenience. It is about accessibility, dignity, and ensuring that no one is left without support during during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? Is there anyone in the virtual audience who wishes to speak? That's all I have. Mayor Thompson, thank you. All right, next up is reports and we're going to start off with the city manager report and presentations.

Thank you. And we'll have staff come to the table. Um we have uh two updates as I mentioned tonight. The first one is a community budget survey results uh where we'll be hearing from our communications and engagement manager Mason Livera and he'll be joined with by our consultants who uh guided through the process of the community survey. So with that, I'll turn it over to them. Thank you, city manager. All right, council. For the record, I'm Mason Lever. I'm the city's communications and engagement manager, and tonight we're here to present the findings from our 2026 community budget survey. So, as a reminder, the city conducts a survey every two years. Results from the survey are used to inform the budget planning process as well as give us a good understanding of the community's priorities. This is a statist statistically valid survey, meaning it's administered specifically to give us an accurate view of the community. and we once again partnered with our consultants PRR to conduct the survey relying on their deep research expertise. Some background on the process this far. We kicked off the survey planning process in December of last year to get the survey designed and updated with the survey kept consistent generally from year-over-year um for the most part to allow for benchmarking. It went live in February with a postcard sent to residents through random postal sampling alongside a public survey link that we promoted throughout our channels and responses came back through March which is when PRR conducted their analysis. The final report will be wrapped up this month. So, here tonight to provide you with an overview of the results is Brian Peterson and Anne Fuj from PR. And I'll turn it over to them. Excellent. Thank you so much. Um we're delighted to be here today. It's nice to see many of you again. Um, my name is Anne Fujier. I use she her pronouns and I'm the director of research and insights at PRR. This year I served as

the principal in charge for the 2026 survey. I was the project manager for the 2024 survey. Yes, and thank you again for having us. My name is Brian Peterson. I use hehim pronouns. I am a research associate of PRR. For this project, I was the project manager uh for this survey cycle. And back in 2024, I was acting as outreach lead as well as a re research um support and coordinator.

Excellent. Okay. So, in terms of an agenda for this presentation, we will move quickly through the research objectives and methods so that we can spend the majority of our time together presenting insights from our analysis and taking any questions you may have about the survey results. Okay. So, as Mason mentioned, every two years the city conducts this survey to inform future investment. So, let's talk briefly about what we intended to learn from this research effort. So, of course, we wanted to understand how people think and feel about the city, define and rank their various priorities and preferences related to key budget decisions. We wanted to gather feedback from community members about their experiences and satisfaction with city services and amenities. And of course understanding the longitudinal nature of this survey survey we wanted to ensure that we were using the best practices in public opinion research so that the council could um make decisions and act on this community feedback. So we conducted the online survey survey between February 9th and March 1st of this year. In total we received 588 survey responses. The vast majority of those were in English, but we also received survey responses in Spanish and in simplified Chinese. Of course, this distribution doesn't reflect all of the languages spoken by respondents who took our survey, but we do find that in most of our projects, we see that many people who use languages other than English at home choose to take our surveys in English. Our recruitment strategy, as Mason mentioned, aimed to balance statistically valid methods with an equity centered approach. So, we combined a household mailing where we sent two rounds of postcards to a random sample of 8,000 addresses in the city with outreach to um specific CBO partners that we have worked with and

built relationships over time. And we also utilized city channels such as social media and email newsletters to promote the survey through existing channels. And this was really an intentional decision to make sure we were promoting the survey through trusted messengers in the community so that we could reach people who we might otherwise miss if we relied solely on random sample methods. In terms of the analysis, we also took a multi-layered approach here as well. So, as you'll see in this presentation and as detailed in the full report, we describe all survey responses using a mix of charts, graphics, and descriptive statistics as appropriate. So, that might include average scores and ranked lists. But we took one additional step, which is to look for meaningful differences between subgroups and audiences in our sample using statistical testing. So what we were trying to understand is whether or not there were statistically significant differences based on key demographics or household characteristics that might help explain some of the patterns and trends we're seeing in people's survey responses. So in other words, their attitudes or the priorities that they're expressing in the survey.

All right, so we'll dive into some key findings here. Um survey respondents overall described a strong sense of belonging in both with the vast majority uh describing both as either a good or an excellent place to live and over four-fifths of respondents said that they would recommend living in both to friends or family. We also heard that survey respondents are satisfied with city services. The majority of respondents agreed that they have opportunities to provide input into city decision-m and they also agreed that they are getting their money's worth for their tax dollars. uh and also that they have access to city resources in times of need. In the survey, we asked respondents to describe in their own words the biggest issue that the city should address in the next two years. And we analyzed their open-ended responses and a few themes emerged here. Respondents are concerned with balancing growth and its demand on infrastructure as well as how to define and maintain the character of both. What makes it special as it continues to grow and evolve into the future? Then respondents were also concerned about the cost of living and affordability, especially when it comes to housing. Then finally, we asked respondents about their top budget priorities over the next two years. And overall, folks prioritized investments in infrastructure such as roads, trails, and sidewalks, as well as in support services such as EMS, and utilities. And then city parks and open spaces were another major investment priority. Now, we'll get into some of the more detailed findings here. So, as you can see on the charts here, respondents overwhelmingly agreed that both feels safe and welcoming. 91% said that they feel safe and 85% said that they feel like they uh are welcome and belong in both. Now, PRR also fielded the survey in 2024. So, we were able to compare the results to uh of these questions to the data that we collected back in 2024. And overall, the proportion of folks who agreed with these statements in uh with these statements were similar between 24 and

26, but a higher proportion of the 2026 respondents strongly agreed that they feel safe. So, we saw some positive change um on that question. In the 2026 sample, as you see on this slide, over 60% agreed that they have opportunities to provide input into the city's decision-making, which was a similar proportion to what we saw in 24. And this year, 62% agreed that both is headed in the right direction, which is up from 54% in 2024. Now, compared to the last slide, these proportions, these numbers may seem much lower, but you know, these days, it's hard to get 60% of people to agree on anything, much less city important city processes like these. And again, as you can see here, over half of respondents agreed that they are getting their money's worth for their tax dollars and that they have access to city resources in times of need. Compared to the 2024 sample, a higher proportion of respondents in 2026 agreed that they're getting their money's worth for their tax dollars. And as you can see, 36% of respondents said that they didn't know if they have access to resources in both in times of need. through this survey. Unfortunately, we don't have any way of knowing whether folks meant that they've never had to seek resources in times of need or if they don't know where to find those resources when they need them or if it was another reason why they said they don't know. So, this could be an opportunity for future research. We asked folks to rank their top five priorities from this list of investments in order of priority with one being their highest priority and five being still a high priority but less so than the other four in the list. So in the chart the number of uh the investment options I beg you pardon are ordered by the number of people who selected them among their top five and the percentages in white represent the proportion of those respondents who selected the the option as their number one priority. So, as you can see, things like police services and

planning for a wide array of housing choices at a wide variety of prices tended to be a higher priority for folks who selected those options, but fewer people overall selected them in their top five. Like we mentioned earlier, the most commonly selected investment priorities were infrastructure such as roads, traffic signs, sidewalks, and trails, as well as services like fire, EMS, water, and sewer. and trails actually appeared twice in the top five, both as mo a mobility infrastructure and as part of both parks, open areas, and gathering spaces. But as I previewed a minute ago, frequency doesn't necessarily tell the whole story here. So, how did people actually rank their priorities? We see that on this slide. And we generated these rankings as weighted averages. What that means is the first uh first priority got five points, four uh four points for the second priority so on and so forth and then we divided those total numbers by the total number of respondents on this question which was 550. So higher numbers mean greater prioritization and overall the top five investment priorities actually stayed the same when we did this weighted average but the order changed slightly. So maintaining roads and traffic signals received both the highest frequency and the highest average ranking but mobility connections and emergency services those both leapfrogged parks and open spaces in terms of ranking. So what this means is that parks and open spaces appeared more frequently in folks top five but they tend to be ranked as a lower priority compared to those other options. This survey also asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with specific services within each of the categories that you see on the lefth hand column of the table here. And we used a similar process to determine the average rating. One point for very dissatisfied up to four points for very satisfied divided by the number of respondents for each of those categories. Higher numbers mean

better rankings and anything over two and a half or 2.5 means more people were satisfied with the service than were dissatisfied. So overall, these rankings look great. There was no service category that averaged lower than 2.5 and only a few particular services dip below that threshold and not by much as you can see. Like I said before, people are satisfied with the services both provided to them. And compared to 2024, the average rankings are up slightly. Local government, for example, the average ranking increased by 0.1 from the last time we fielded the survey in 24. And in terms of particular services, we saw some improvement as well. clean streets and sidewalks. That average ranking went up by 0.12. Accessible city processes went up by 21. There were some average rankings that uh decrease slightly, very small decreases in the case of things like wreck programs decreased by 6100ths of a point. Um just a few were very slightly down, but again overall from what we're seeing um the folks that we heard from on the survey are very satisfied with the services that the city provides. Thank you all for listening. We will now take any questions that you have.

Council member Dodd, thank you for the presentation. I really appreciate the overview. I um had a quick question. So for the biggest issues, I appreciated that roundup and I'm wondering if you collect any free form text on something like defining and maintaining the character of the city just because that could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So I'm wondering if anyone had a chance to fill in more.

Yes, we did. Thank you for the question, Council Member Dodd. And so we collected um over 500 responses um open-ended responses. Not everyone was talking about the character of both um but that was a major theme that emerged. And so we're still um synthesizing that data into a more sort of accessible format. But um I can tell you now that when in in those comments we were primarily seeing folks talking about you know um both has this sort of small town main street type charm and as the city continues to grow there's a concern that that will be lost to you know major developments or like retail chains and things like that. So, um, as I mentioned, we're still we're still getting a deeper dive into that data to make sure that we didn't miss anything, but that was a major sub theme that emerged that kind of small town character of both. Will that remain and perpetuate into the future?

Council member Miles. Yes, thank you. Uh, similar question about I think both is headed in the right direction. What did you what would you say that person is thinking?

Yeah, Council Member Miles, that's a great question. Thank you. Unfortunately, that wasn't a question that we collected open-ended feedback on. That was a question where we asked folks to um agree or disagree and and the degree to which they agreed or disagreed. So, um we don't have a ton of direct feedback on what that means that both is headed in the right direction. But in aggregate when we look at some of the other uh ways that people expressed satisfaction with with city processes and services um we saw a picture that overall you know people are feeling like they they have access to government that government is responsive and transparent and that it is a participatory process. And so there there is this sense that you know being able to have an open dialogue with elected representatives um that that does produce a stronger sense of moving in the right direction again even if it's not something that that everybody agrees with. Just knowing that that process is transparent and accessible goes a long way to bridge some of the the gaps in government trust that we're seeing all over the place these days.

Thank you. That was helpful. Council member Angulari. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, awesome presentation. I really loved it and a lot of I've been living in both the last 20 years. I think most of the information kind of resonate with me what I see it. Thank you so much uh putting together really awesome. Maybe maybe an interesting question uh how do you if you guys have done this for other cities, how is both doing compared to any neighboring cities? if you have if you have done it otherwise you don't need to answer that. That's a great question. Thank you. Um I think I'll turn this over to Ann actually.

He's he's punting the hard question to me. So I would say we don't actually have the data to make those kinds of comparisons because the survey questions are so specific to this particular study. Yeah. So thank you. I guess I will add that we don't always see satisfaction ratings this high in our other other efforts though. Yeah. Council member Kurt,

thank you. Thanks for the presentation. Um had a quick question comparing the results of this survey to that of 2024. And I'm glad that you're on board again so that we have some continuity here. We can draw some maybe some conclusions because they're both uh statistically valid. Um last time around there were about,00 responses and this time there are a lot fewer. I'm wondering um one of the outcomes that came out of 2024 was the demographic correlations which helped us to realize where we might have had some um gaps in our understanding of where the community was at in some of those priorities that we had actually tried working on in the intervening two years. So, I'm wondering, are you able to still produce demographic correlations in this new sample even with the fewer number of total responses? And if so, are you seeing any early um correlations that you could share with us?

Yes. Thank you for the question, council member. And um the simple answer is yes. We we received a robust enough sample that we were able to run um demographic analyses and correlations on a variety of demographics and household characteristics including um respondents who identified as black, indigenous or people of color uh as well as um household characteristics like income um renting versus owning household uh their their homes and some other household characteristics as well. So in terms of like what we saw correlating between some of those groups, there were a couple of things that that immediately stood out to us in the findings. Number one, we asked folks, do they feel safe and do they feel welcomed in both? And there was no statistically significant correlation between respondents to that question and any of the the demographics or household characteristics that we analyzed. What that means is there's there's no group that is feeling more statistically more or less safe than others in Both or more or less welcome based on our our um results of this survey. Um there were some other kind of interesting uh uh statistical correlations and these will all be present in the final report that we're putting the the finishing touches on now. But I can preview for you that um one of the things that stood out just in in our like immediate cursory review was that respondents who identify as white tended to rate both more highly as a as a place to live compared to other cities and towns and people who identified as bipok tended to rate it slightly lower as well. So we there there are some you know uh unique and specific correlations that uh that we'll we'll provide in the final report. Um kind anything that you wanted to add there?

I just echo what Brian said, but yes, the sample is sufficiently large to do the statistical analysis to see if there are meaningful differences by demographic groups and other household characteristics. And yes, we do see meaningful relationships and we call those out in the report. Thank you. Looking forward to that report. Council member Miles. Yes. I think my final question is, and I didn't say this before, thanks for the presentation. It's really good. What would you say are the meaningful opportunities and challenges that we have in front of us?

What an excellent question. Thank you. So I think managing growth of course is is an issue that the entire Pacific Northwest faces and that that was one of the the key themes that we saw here. You know based on our survey uh results we saw a a good degree of trust that both is moving in the right direction. But as you know growth continues to occur and as the city continues to to look and feel different to people um maintaining the you know the balance of infrastructure making sure that you know there's enough roadways enough parking for everybody to get around as well as sidewalks and trails for people that don't use cars. Um that is a a major opportunity that that I think is going to be really important for the community over the next few years as well as like we said before the um you know who who is both right what is what does it mean to be the city of both and what will that look like in the future? Will we still have the sort of small town character that that we see, the very walkable community that we see along both way? And uh um will that continue to persist into the future for um for few gener generations? in terms of like specific um service areas or or um you know services that the city provides. Um one of the ones that that was among the lowest rated services on this survey, bless you, was um affordable housing. And that of course is is an issue that that is common in many communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. So, not unique to both, but one that respondents were rating a little bit lower on satisfaction compared to other services like fire and EMS response times. So, the a lot of those like basic needs such as um you know, fire and sewer are um folks are satisfied with where they're at and they want to see those continue to be invested in over the next two years. And then things like affordable housing, those are areas where I think folks are looking for additional support.

Council Rakarra. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for this research. I find it especially interesting. I didn't see in our packets or the comparison between this year and the two years ago. That would be, I think, good information when you gave the color commentary. That was very, very helpful. Uh, thank you for that. But it'll be good, you know, if you could share that that information also.

Absolutely. Um I I had a few things. I know uh you guys kept emphasizing statistic significance and all that. Um there are 588 respondents and the top uh the first two slides had 576. So 12 decided to not uh answer those questions. But if five so it is within a margin of error that you guys calculate. But what about when you start breaking down into the subgroups uh homeowner versus renter and the bipok uh groups and uh you know household income and so on so forth. Now you start getting smaller and smaller sample size and then would you be able to derive any meaningful uh it'll be directional but it's not going to be any uh there might not be any statistical significance. Is that a a good character characterization? Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. The smaller you slice and dice the segments of the sample, the harder it would be to find that relationship. Um, so anything we report in the final report meets the criteria and the cut offs for statistical significance. So we need to have a minimum sample size. We need to have a coefficient and a p value that meets certain criteria. And so we would only report relationships that meet that. But we so we're not diving into the results in a way that we would um talk about relationships for very small segments of the sample. That's why, for example, when Brian's describing these, we're talking about renter verse homeowner, which are larger groups in the sample. Um bipac or not bipok. Um those are larger groups that would allow us to do the statistical testing.

Yeah, that will be that will be helpful. I I uh when I looked at this I saw the statistical significance but then it's only about 7 8% of the because you sent to 8,000 people the mailer and then you got 500 um let's call it 600 people respond so between 7 and 8% of respondents so you have significance but is there representation of the both community in those responses that that's another question

yeah I think that's a great question too and We have a table in the final report that actually compares the current sample from the 2026 survey with the census estimates. And so in general, we're lining up pretty well. There are certain groups that are um underrepresented in the survey sample, but some of that we could potentially attribute to differences in data collection methodologies by the census. For example, we offer different um ways to identify uh race and ethnicity characteristics than the census does. And so um we are happy to talk more about that and include any clarifying notes in the report. Um but yes in general it is a representative sample.

Uh the reason why this caught my attention also is when you look at the uh the slide um u slide 10 in your presentation for example the promoting equity inclusion community engagement there's n equals 73. I mean you can't really derive anything meaningful from that u number or can you for example you know can you analyze why did uh you know 300 people uh uh decide that maintaining roads is number one or in that chart that's uh the history the the chart number one is road but then last thing was you know any inclusion. Yeah, council member, you're asking about the the investment priorities there, right? And

um to answer your question,

yes and no, right? We can analyze relationships between the demographic characteristics uh that that we identified and and again we have a a robust enough sample to to analyze across multiple different lines. What we can't necessarily do is tease out why someone did or did not select a particular option. So in the case of you know promoting equity inclusion in in uh city processes that was I believe the the low the the least frequently selected option among investment priorities and why that is. Um unfortunately we weren't able to collect a whole lot of feedback on that. It wasn't something that that folks really wrote about often in their open-ended responses when we asked what's the biggest issue facing both over the next two years. um you know we there based on the the questions that we asked in the survey that that was a a a quantitative data point that that we um pulled but for you know understanding why folks chose the five options that they selected as investment priorities over the the remaining 10 or 12 that they did not select unfortunately we don't have the data to to speak firmly on that

I I feel like um because such a small number of folks responded to the survey. Uh, and I I I'm be more than happy for the data to prove me wrong, but my hypothesis is that um people self- select into the survey. So, you get a certain de certain type of person who's responding and that will skew the the data we get the results we get into a certain direction. I didn't want to mention this. It was brought up a couple times like when somebody says neighborhood character. It was brought up by council member Dodd then get it means different things to different people. Uh and when I hear you know one definition is what you mentioned is keeping it small and all that stuff. Like that's one definition of maintaining both's character but that usually in my mind skews to people who've been in both for a very long time who who who don't who uh comfortable and and it's not bad wrong or right I'm not saying so but you know it's just a certain type of people who just opt into the survey and they provide and then we base our decisions on only a segment of the population. If the full report does provide more information for us, I think that will be very helpful.

Absolutely. Yeah. And and council member, I think you're you're absolutely right. So surveys in general tend to receive more responses uh a disproportionate number of responses from folks who are older, wider, and wealthier than the the general public. And so we saw a degree of that on this survey, as we do on most surveys that we field. But compared to some other surveys that we fielded recently in comparison to the census characteristics of both we were a lot closer in in many of those respects than we have been on um on other statistically valid surveys. So for example uh our sample I believe 67% of respondents identified as white and that's compared to 66% who identified as white on the census. So not nearly as as white skewed as we've seen on on other surveys that we've fielded in the past. Uh when is the report going to be come out come out the final report?

We are planning on having it back to you in the first week of May. Okay. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Um this has been really interesting. I really appreciate how you have presented the data to us tonight. Um, I found some of the some of the ways that you presented it as well as some of the insights that you've shared to be really helpful in terms of of understanding, you know, and giving guidance to, um, each department of the city. Um, I think we can follow through on a lot of this and, um, I really do appreciate hearing how closely aligned the um, the respondents were to demographics of the city. Um, I think we're probably pretty lucky in that regard. Um, I look forward to seeing more of the um the report when it comes out and look at some of the um, you know, digging into more of the details of it. Um, someday I I dream of a time when we can have stat like statistically representative samples of each demographic group so that we can better understand each group that lives in the community instead of, you know, just having increasingly smaller, you know, percentages of the pie um to look at. Um, but I I think you're we would have to invest a lot more in methods to to be able to do that. Um, and it would be still fascinating for us to to understand. Um, let's see. I'm going to look at some of my notes here. Um, for example, I really appreciated the um the slide on P uh slide 13 about the categories of services that you broke it down by categories of services um and you were able to compare highest rated versus lowest rated. Some of them were really close to each other. for example, with the environment waste disposal services and open spaces and natural areas. Like was that a stat like was that a statistically different number to go from low to high or was that just pretty close?

Yeah, Deputy Mayor, that's a great question. Thank you for asking. So, um, we did not look at at statistical relationships between how folks answered on on particular service categories. What we did look at was how um certain demographics or household characteristics were they more or less likely to rate those uh those services with greater satisfaction than others. And there there were quite a few statistically significant relationships within those service categories. So um we we'll provide a ton more information about that in the um in the final report, but I think there's some interesting data to dive into there.

Absolutely. I agree. um really great call out on um just affordable housing as a struggle for our community. Um really grateful that you included that um and I think that you've you know really presented this data well tonight um and and anticipated I think a lot of the the questions that we were going to have around equity and demographics and so you have a plan to present that data to us and I think we all look forward to digging into it and so I'm looking forward to receiving that report. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yeah. And as one part of that plan, you know, I I would be remiss if we didn't thank our community partners as well. We did not do this alone. Um, you know, we we worked closely with Mason and Jamie on the the city of Bath's communications team to spread the word about the survey and reach people who uh we weren't able to to contact through our address base sampling. We also partnered with um five community organizations and those included um the both library just down the road as well as the Islamic Center of both United Methodist Church um the Latino Educational and uh Training Institute or LII as well as Both lights for people oriented places or BOP who's been an active online community since uh 2019. So, our community partners also went a long way in making sure that we heard from a representative sample of the community and helped us bridge some of those gaps that we often see in household mailings, which tend to um receive higher response rates for homeowners who also tend to be older and wealthier than the the general population as well. So, um a huge thank you to our community partners and research tends to be a very extractive process. Historically, it's a very extractive process. That's something that we're aware of as a research team. And so as part of our efforts here um before we wind down our involvement on this project, we'll be passing those relationships back to Mason and connecting our community uh organizational partners with the both communications team so that those partnerships can continue to grow and flourish and um be mutually beneficial as well.

Thank you. You anticipated my question. I have it up here which are which were the partners. So thanks for including that. Council member Dod,

thank you. Um, it's always a battle to not forget my questions, but I thought of another one since the last time. Um, and thanks for reaching out to Letty. I was surprised to hear it, but grateful. I hear them a lot with work with the Snowish County Transportation Coalition, so it's great to hear them in both, too. Um, I did have a question on the um on the priorities. I think sometimes well I wonder if there's value in separating out like what we have to do um statutoily as a city versus what's more optional or that we try to provide in response to circumstances in our city and resident feedback. Um is there can you walk me through having it all in kind of one prioritization list versus more of like a required and separate

roads? Yeah, like roads. We're always going to have roads as as council member Alcabra um just whispered to me. But um some of the services we provide aren't required statutoily, but we are proud to offer them. So I'm just wondering about that.

Yeah. So um council member, thank you again for the question. And I guess what I what I'd say in response is that what we were asking folks for their opinions about what what you know their top investment priorities were. So whether that means that for example if if I selected police services as my number one priority for investment over the next two years does that mean that I think both police are doing a great job and should continue to be funded at their current rate or do I think that you know police services could be improved unfortunately we don't have that data from the quantitative way that we that we ask that question. So, um, is there is there value in separating out the the sort of statutory requirements from the those other investment priorities? Um, unfortunately, I I don't think that we're the people to answer that question for you.

I will jump in and and offer that the um the way we approached reporting for this particular survey is we presented the data to you the way it was presented to respondents. And so, um, getting this kind of feedback about ways that we could make our reporting and analysis more helpful to your processes and the decisions you have in front of you, um, we welcome an opportunity to have that conversation because we can, now that we've collected the data, um, work with Mason and Jamie and others, um, to present the information to you in a way that would help with your decision-m.

Absolutely. Council member dod your question is getting out the outcomes from this these results right and that process will be informed by these results and so what we do for our next steps is we take the final report and that gets implemented throughout all of our strategic planning including with you. So um looking at that data and determining from the survey results what are um elements that we are proud to offer to use your language versus ones that we must offer that can be done in that process at that time. Uh, council member Alcabra, one thing that you mentioned earlier too, um, I wanted to address about our engagement outreach efforts. It's really important, as you mentioned, to understand that there is always going to be some level of, um, you know, bias in who decides to respond to a survey. But the fact that this is statistically valid, which is the most accurate way we can try to ascertain feedback from the community is really important for us because it informs our feedback loops. And oftentimes when you conduct a survey, um, if you don't do it in a statistically valid method, you're going to be more heavily influenced by the folks who are a aware that survey is even happening and b are willing to provide their responses. But when you do it with a statistically valid approach, it gives you the most accurate input that you can have. And we actually take that information and we compare that internally to our communication and engagement efforts to better inform how we regularly engage with the community as a whole. because many times, as you all know as council members, um the folks that are willing to show up and the people that do actively engage with us may have more of a predisposed desire to do so than our average people who are very busy and only really engage with the city when something goes wrong or when something goes really well. And so we try to always inform our efforts with results from these surveys, not only in strategic planning for the city and our priorities, but in how we engage and communicate with the community as a whole. Yeah,

thank you M. Thank you and appreciate that. This is very helpful. Um, what I was trying to differentiate is yes, it is statistically significant and the experts have, you know, you guys are the experts. I'm just a guy who sits over here. Um, I was saying it may be statistically significant. Say that three times very quickly. But the my question my point was are we doing the extra step of making sure it represents because we did agree that survey respondents are usually bi uh respondents um surveys are biased towards certain people who do who are more predisposed to take that action. But how do we do go above and beyond what the survey says or the survey respondents to make sure that not only is it static statistically significant but also does it represent the whole community and and you said that we do and they add an extra layer on top of that because math is one thing but actually what happens on the ground is something else you know

certainly and I I think our work with our community based organizations is really instrumental here and the way that we facilitate the survey allows us to promote it through our many channels, social media, our newsletter, both print and email, right? And through our relationships with community- based organizations and also through the statistically valid postcard sample. And you can compare those two and see if there are any differences. And I know that PR worked very hard in close tandem with our team to ensure that we were reaching as many of these organizations um and folks that are, you know, represented our community through that effort. And then on the analysis side, looking to see if there were any differences there, which PR can speak to more as the subject matter expert, which I do not claim to be.

Might I add one additional note, which is that, um, we as as part of the final deliverables under our contract, we will be providing the full data set. And so, um, I think one question you're getting at is the tension between statistical validity and representativeness and then representation of like actual voices and perspectives in the community and making sure you're um, representing the the widest range possible in the community. Um, with the the data set, with the final survey results, there's opportunities to drill down into specific segments so that you can just set aside the statistical testing and validity side of things and just look specifically at the responses from these audiences that you want to prioritize in your decision-m.

Deputy Mayor,

thank you. Um, I look forward to be able to doing that. Um, and I'm glad that you're doing this work with an eye for that for us to have that ability. Um, I do want to just plus one, uh, Council Member Dod's request to see required services rated separately from the extras. I'd also love a different name for that. like how would you how would you capture um the you know the value and intent and the purpose of what isn't like uh you know statutoily required versus the things that we opt to do to serve our community the best that we can. So um I very much would like to see that in future surveys if that's possible. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for the feedback council member Dodd. Thanks. Um, I was going to say before my colleagues got very excited, um, thank you for that explanation and, um, I think you're also seeing the results of, um, I'm going to say seven nerds who got some data and are like, "Ooh, data." Um, so I appreciate being able to talk about it. Um I would like to add in future surveys um neighborhood information is really helpful too because we have just if I think about the neighborhoods on the dis like a lot of different amenities in our neighborhoods and seeing how different parts of the city appreciate and are asking for other things um would be really helpful.

Yeah, council member, thank you for the feedback. In this survey, we did ask folks to provide their zip code as well as their uh the county where they live. And so we we have a a more aggregated look at um neighborhoods in that sense. But again, thank you for the feedback for for next round of survey um exploring by neighborhood. I think that's an interesting way to approach it. Council member Angulari, uh quick question. So 588 responses is survey responses uh represents 1% of our population. Is it pretty standard usually in your experience? 1% of the population usually

these days. Yes. Um when we conduct a household mailing like like we did here, we're often seeing a 4 to 6% response rate. Um unless it's a really spicy topic. So we're we're quite pleased with the response rate this year. It's my turn. Um I just had one quick question and I appreciate all the questions my colleagues have had. Um, is there a reason that you come to us and do a presentation before the report is out? Like I feel like we got a lot of like, well that's going to be in the report and like there's probably would be a lot of interest in reading the report before this presentation.

Mayor, thank you for your question and um, yes, the the reason is so that the the final report that we deliver can be of the highest value to to you and to the city as possible. So, we're using this as an opportunity to collect feedback that will inform the drafting of the report itself, the refinement of the report that we're going through right now. Perfect. That's all I've got. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your work and your time tonight.

Great. Thank you all. All right. We do have one more uh report under the city manager report and that is to get an update on the tree code uh update that's taking place. Uh just as a bit of a background and reminder uh the existing code uh has been in place since 1996 which you can think about all of the things that have changed in your life greatly since 1996. So uh this has been something that that staff have been working on and you'll hear tonight a timeline that lays out that uh by this time next year we should have an updated tree code. So with that I'm going to turn things over to the table. We uh are joined by our community development uh deputy director Christian Gats as well as Cameron Colton, our senior planner who will be leading the presentation. Cameron, thank you very much and good evening city council. Um so we just have a very brief overview for you tonight of the anticipated schedule and scope of work for our tree code updates. So tonight's mostly just to be an initial touch point, kind of kickoff with you all in the community on this project. So, um, updating our tree code is one of the first major steps in implementing our newly adopted urban forest management plan. And as you may recall during those discussions around setting our citywide tree canopy goals for the next 20 years, we mentioned that code revisions are one of the main tools that we have to help mitigate future tree losses and really help flatten out that curve to set us up for better success in reaching our goal and hopefully exceeding that over the next 20 years. um updating our tree code and uh policies and standards was also one of the four primary strategies outlined in the UFMP.

And then as part of the um development of the urban forest management plan, we worked with our consultant Planet Geo to do an initial audit of the city of Athel's existing tree code, identify relevant uh code sections, and make recommendations on uh potential improvements or updates uh to help support uh UFMP goals. Um, and so they not only went through and identified uh those recommendations, but also compared our code to neighboring jurisdictions and similarly sized cities as well to kind of see what's what else is going on around the region and how we compare. So, we've laid out a couple of initial project goals just to help guide this process. Um, one to strengthen tree protections and mitigation requirements, help clarify those requirements, roles and responsibilities for um, property owners, developers, as well as the city. Um, to streamline and align processes across multiple city departments. Um, incorporate best management practices and industry standards. establish new and added flexibility and incentives to support UFMP goals and then to also through this process increase awareness about how the city's tree code works and um the purpose of this update and what the changes are so that's understood throughout the community. And so uh included in that uh summary of the code audit was a table of the relevant code sections. Um this is a pretty comprehensive review but a bulk of the focus will be on title 12 chapter

18 our tree retention and landscaping uh standards. And so the core topics we'll be focusing on um for the updates are things like authority and credentials. Um tree campy preservation protection during construction to make sure trees are fenced off and uh root structures aren't being disturbed during grading and construction. uh planting standards, maintenance requirements, mitigation requirements, and then enforcement. So, just an overview of the anticipated timeline. We are hoping to kick off the first round of engagement next month. Um, and as of uh this week, we actually got the project page up and running. And so people that are interested in participating and signing up for our initial round of focus groups can do so uh through engage both. We will be hosting that first round of focus groups to gather initial input and start drafting um initial code updates and then we'll circle back with them um in the late summer, early fall to share uh the draft code amendments, further refine those before we bring those back to planning commission and city council for final review and adoption. And the goal is to have the updated code adopted by the end of Q1 of next year. So just to um provide a little more detail on the uh engagement approach. Um so the first round we'll be identifying priorities, discussing anticipated trade-offs and start building consensus around key topics. Um we'll be prim primarily relying on the focus groups.

We'll be hosting an internal workshop with uh staff from various city departments and then we'll also be raising awareness at inerson tableabling. We'll be at the Earth Day event this Saturday. Um so hope to see some of you there. And then um as I mentioned the second round um will focus on reviewing draft code uh amendments uh and identifying any remaining gaps. And just something I wanted to highlight tonight is that there are some inherent tradeoffs uh when we talk about updating our tree code and really balancing the city's goals around housing affordability and environmental preservation. Um, you know, we want to make sure that, uh, we're not overreaching and making, um, development overly cumbersome. We want to make sure it's feasible as well as enforceable for city staff as well. And so, we'll be balancing a lot of different perspectives as part of this process from developers, environmental professionals, and community groups, utility providers, um, homeowners, and other residents. So, as I mentioned, next steps, we'll be launching the first round of engagement and we'll be returning um with more detailed study sessions later this year uh to dive into more detail. And with that, I'll answer any questions you all may have.

Council Burd,

thank you for the presentation. I love uh everything that you've been going into so far. Um a couple of quick items. One was the um preliminary information that we had received previously had indicated that a lot of our canopy is in critical areas. So I would encourage you while doing outreach to um include um include whether critical areas um messaging or um you know questions asked to members of the public. um if you could include that into your outreach, I think it would be helpful to sort of parse out what the issues and barriers and motivators are to um restoring critical areas versus just, you know, in a front yard um that's flat in in a subdivision. Um so that's one thing that I would um ask that you keep in mind. The other thing is that um trees are um I I feel like I could talk for a long time about trees. So I imagine that these public meetings will also carry a lot. Um so I would encourage you to um think holistically in your feedback gathering and um encourage people to um share stories and share leaves or you know like um bring in a more holistic um view of of this because people are going to have a lot to say about it. But if you could help transmit some of those stories, I think it would do a lot to bring some of the goodwill to the community that we're listening um and that we're not just here to um enforce uh tree code um even though that's a component of it and that uh we've been asked to do by the community as well. So um just some ideas and I can't wait to see what the outcome of the uh analysis is.

Council member Dodd,

thank you. Thank you for the update. Um, it's a great plan. Um, from what I can tell, I appreciate the broad public engagement. I think that's really important. I was, uh, talking to Council Member Okabra about what we were doing in 1996. It seems like a long time ago for the tree code to have been unupdated. Um, I won't say what we were doing because I don't think Council Member Cobra appreciated the difference. Um, I am wondering after this is done. Um, so Q1 2027, will there be kind of a public education component so that everybody is aware of the new regulations and even like I couldn't tell you off the top of my head tree trimming around utility poles? Like sometimes I see something and I'm like that's weird, but then it's like I don't really know if it's even problematic or not under code. So you're shaking your head, yes, but it sounds like that's a plan.

Yes, most definitely. And so that's why we um wanted to specifically call out um public education and increasing awareness. So, um that'll be a major component throughout as we're developing the code updates, but also after adoption as well, um to really make it clear what um the changes are, what people need to be aware of and how it may impact them. And probably also why the code is set up that way, too. Because I think sometimes just explaining I'm thinking of my 10-year-old where sometimes he's like, "Wow, you don't want me to have fun." And I'm like, "Well, here's why we have that rule." and then sometimes that helps. So, thanks,

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you so much for all of your work on this and for bringing this presentation to us. Um, I appreciate the update and sort of just letting us know where things are going. Um, I I may have made a face when I heard that the last time um this was updated was 1986. I think it's really about time. I'm very excited that we're finally doing this. I remember when I was first new on council, I asked when are we updating the tree code and here we are. So, thank you for all of the like leadup work and you know the the ground that was laid to get us here. Um, one of the things that uh kind of stuck struck out to me uh stuck out to me while I was listening to your presentation was on um slide nine around the relevant code sections. Um, when I will just tell you now, and I'm not trying to like skew your data, but from my experience as an elected official here in the city, when I talk about trees with people, it almost always comes back around to removal procedures, uh, particularly on private property. Um, so just a heads up that you're probably, if you haven't already heard that a lot, you're probably going to hear it a lot. Um, and you probably hear it more often than I do, to be honest. Um I really do also appreciate the the um the graphic on 15 um because you really it does show that you are taking a holistic view of of this process and of all of the pieces you know understanding how they they work together and fit together and the the challenges that we have to balance uh the you know the holistic needs of our community. And so I really do appreciate you looking at it from that perspective and um and trying to bring you know the the newest and best science available to us in the 21st century um to to this uh to the our code. I think it's time. So I really really appreciate that you're doing this. Thank you.

I want to echo a lot of my comments from my colleagues that I appreciate this work. Um 1986 was a long time ago. I was a sophomore in high school. Um and uh I'm not a sophomore in high school anymore. So it's uh I'm excited to see what we can do to kind of bring this into the modern age. And I appreciated kind of what you said about balancing the fact that we want housing to get built and we also want to keep trees. And it's really easy conceptually to say we want to do this one thing and forget the other one, but it's hard to have the nuance to say we want to do our best at doing both because both are important. So just I appreciate that call out and I'm looking forward to seeing this work continue.

Thank you very much, council. And that concludes the city manager report. Turn it back over to you.

All right. Next up is council reports and conversations. Council. Council Angular. Uh thank you mayor. Last week Eltech held its April meeting and I wanted to share a few highlevel updates. First of all I learned that lodging tax funds can be allocated across three categories marketing events and tourism related facilities. We began evaluating how our current spending aligns with both needs and future direction. Second, as per committee request, city staff is looking into ELTC grant programs for the events and comparing Eltac spending approaches across peer cities, how our other cities are doing. This will provide helpful context as we consider how to better align our investment going forward. Third, looking ahead to the 2027 and 2028 as this is a key moment for our LTAC to become more strategic and outcome focused. We all are trying our best to present more info to our city council to review and guide us. Uh we may discuss quickly on the next projected uh agenda item discussion in the next few minutes. Finally, we are currently collecting survey feedback from all both hotels uh not just the ones on the LTAC but all the hotels and Elac recipients. We expect responses this week or by next week which can help inform our upcoming discussions and decisions. So that concludes my Eltech update. On a different note, thank you so much my fellow council members and the city staff for continued support as I learned and contribute in this new role. First of all, I truly appreciate guidance and Amanda, thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback and editorial help last week. I just want to thank you. I remain open to honest feedback and

welcome all your guidance. Thank you. Thank you. Council bra. Oh, thank you, Mayor. Um although this is council conversations, I could have jumped in without your approval for the um I uh you see on your on your desks a letter uh from the East Side Transportation Partnership.

Is it this letter? Yes. The council member Dodd I have the microphone. You can't make fun. Um so this is a letter that was drafted um by ATP um to encourage Sound Transit to uh continue the um with the plans to build line 4 because there are uh as we all know San Fran is going through some budget issues and they're considering making cuts and one of those um ideas was to not extend to uh um line ST4 which is uh or line four which is takes to all the way to Isiqua. So this is a letter from our colleagues uh over an ETP and uh please take a read uh and let me know if you uh need to make any adjustments or would like to be a signatory as as a city on it. This letter is going to get sent to Sound Transit um on May 8th for their uh when the Sound Transit makes their vote at that time. That did I miss anything, Steve? Yeah, cuz uh we again I said over here, but we have an expert over there. I feel like Steve needs walk up music or something.

Um, I think the one thing you want to look at is u one of the ways they're looking at potentially saving funds to put into the link for line is to get rid of the parking structures and there are parking structures throughout one's in both one's in Kenmore. I think Reton has one. Renton's already expressed their need to keep their parking um because that's part of their plan to support the transit and how people get on the BRT and everything. So, that should be a consideration how it's probably worded. Um because there's various things that they could do with that parking. I you guys remember that they pushed it out a number of years. That could be something they do or they could eliminate it completely. or they could look at alternatives such as not building a whole structure but maybe being creative on how they do it. So I think the verbiage is very important to make sure you're comfortable that if both desires a parking ride somehow there is latitude to look into alternatives that make sense. I didn't notice the conversation about that and the letter is that just uh for our information as we have one sentence there that

in the middle of the third paragraph we encourage uh yes okay strategy I think it is worded loose enough that it gives room it it was it it was more specific but I think they created a subcommittee uh after the two weeks ago when we had the meeting and they massaged the language a little bit so to provide even more options because exactly for this issue what uh Reton um did um speak of concerns about eliminating parking structures over there in

I I'm fine with the letter. I'm I would be fine with both being a signatory. I think with the parking, we all pay toward ST3 and city saying no, we need our parking. No, we don't need our parking. Like I would love them to explore whether that's a tax increment financing that's more locally bonded for the cities that insist on it. Like the access and getting across the region is the most important part. Um, I think this really pairs well with the conversation that the mayor and deputy mayor and I had with the King County Executive on needing that local bus service to support access to light rail. Um, so I'd love to see some pushing um on the in this case on this letter, King County Metro. Um, just making sure that local bus service is robust and that we're looking for options there too. Um, parking serves people who drive to the light rail. 30% of adults will never drive but may still use the light rail. Um, and a lot of the communities represented here are looking toward having parts of their city very accessible to people who do not own cars because if if we're all driving everywhere, nobody's going anywhere. Um, so I would I don't know that that needs to be better represented in the letter, but just some perspective as you go back to the meetings.

Yeah, I will I will take that to them. Um I think generally uh you are right uh there are a lot of uh folks who do support the alternative u methods to uh you know encouraging driving towards parking well a parking garage whether it's in both or KMO or rent just to pick on the cities we were talking about shouldn't make a light rail stop not happen somewhere else that should not be the barrier um and whether it's coming later or again I think we should be funding the part that everyone can use. So, um, with as much as we can with the ST3 dollars.

The Renton, uh, conversation was it's a major hub for, uh, communities around Renton as well. So, a lot of folks drive from the communities around Renton, they come to the their big parking ride there and then they take the buses elsewhere. So that was the hesitation for them for saying well uh if we're going to extend down to rent and we don't want to eliminate parking. I don't know how legit or not legit. I wasn't part of those other conversations but uh that's something I can bring back to the meeting next time.

Well and so much of the data on parking rides predates CO like I haven't seen a lot of new numbers but I have seen very accessible parking in our local park and rides postco. So, um, just some curiosity, but thanks for bringing this forward. Is is everybody okay in general? I'm fine with it. Yeah, I'm okay. Okay, cool. Thank you. I'm fine. Uh, so um, city manager, do I respond or do you respond like how does or or Steve? I think you'll be able to uh bring that message back to the next ETP meeting.

Okay. The next ATP meeting might not would it happen before May 8th. I think this letter is going to get sent to before uh we submitted to Sound Transit. Sorry. Here comes Steve. Seriously, Eye of the Tiger is the perfect walk. That walk up music would be useful yet again. So, I think the next meeting they're going to vote on it. Um if we want to propose changes, what I would recommend is if there's any changes or discuss Oh, the next meeting. I misunderstood Genevie's email. So this is the ETP next meeting May 8th. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So but before then if we have any changes or concerns or issues if we want to propose different language we can do that from a staff

because the sound transit meeting my understanding from um Savannah was going to be around that time shortly after you know cutting it very close. We'll miss it. We're very close. Yep.

Okay. I think we're good. Thank you. I'm going to jump in on the council conversations bit. Um I do not have um learning aids, but um first uh council member Angular, I'm I was happy to help. Um I think I firmly believe that um we all have a a learning curve in taking on this work. And also there is hopefully always someone before you that you can learn from. And so thank you for being approachable. That's half the battle when someone has feedback for someone else is can you talk to them about it. So I I appreciated the teamwork there. Um, I got to tour yesterday um the connect casino road um area on Casino Road um at the Villages and it was very very cool and it reminded me we had a public comment earlier about needing office space and it was a bunch of different human services organizations like child's strive there's a preschool um and um it was just a really cool thing. So, I don't I don't have an action statement, but that is a group that I just I happen to have a meeting there and um it was really cool to get a tour. So, if you can go view the I know we all talk about the Together Center cuz it's like the current recent gold standard. Um but touring these community organizations and seeing where there's these different partnerships among um just groups that are helping people, I think is really valuable. So, I left that with a lot of ideas and try and decide who I want to bother first with those ideas. But um it's really cool stuff. So just take those tours if you get a chance is the my my encouraging words for everyone.

I'm going to jump in as a com part of our conversation. It's so why is it so awkward to just talk to each other? Um we're working on it. Um, but I I thought of the both urban project for um for IAS that it would be really fantastic. And I I know that that's not going to be built in the time frame that they're looking for space, but um someday we will have a comparable hub for community services like uh the neighborhood center in Lynwood and the Together Center in Redmond and the villages in Everett. Um and I'm really grateful that we have community leaders who are working to bring that type of a space together so that we can have these partnerships for human service agencies. So um just a reminder that I'm excited about the ongoing work to to build and construct both urban um and you know if there's I was thinking you know I I have in my notes here refer to um Anendish about looking for um locations and and I'm sure that you're already on it so thank you. On Saturday, I was joined by Deputy Mayor Alder and Council Member Dodd at a council in the community. Uh it was held at the downtown uh fire station in the morning, but not too early in the morning. There was coffee. It was supported by um comms and engagement manager Loua and assistant city manager Range. um really appreciated the conversations that folks had with us. Um there was a lot of interest about how to get engaged with the city, how to volunteer when we heard from maybe I don't know 12 to 15 different folks that came through during the two-hour session. It was really nice. So I

appreciate uh that um the executive department partnered with us on city council to put that on. Thank you for the um the time that you all spent uh this weekend engaging with our community.

All right, I'm going to move on to projected agenda discussion. Anybody have something they'd like to bring up? Council member Angulari.

Uh thank you, Mayor Thompson. So this is about Elra. Uh tonight I'm seeking guidance from council to bring back a discussion in May related to the future direction of the city's Elra committee. Next month, Elra will be welcoming two members, one of them already joined uh on April as a guest. In addition, we'll be discussing the proposed council priority returning at our next meeting regarding the development of new tourism strategy. So, Elra is prepared to work with the staff to bring a forward a draft strategy for council consideration at the future meeting. As we begin these discussions, I would welcome your feedback on the guiding principles or objectives you would like to see in the included in that draft strategy. If there is a support to bring this forward, I will work with the city manager team to include additional information on May 5th packet and hope to have a brief discussion on what is most important to you as we take on this council priority. I've I've been looking forward to an updated tourism strategy for a long while. Um, and so I'm definitely interested. I just want to, you know, to check in with the city manager and with staff to make sure that like cuz like I know that from the the retreat process and we haven't even heard the like staff followup yet from the retreat of where that fits into the work plan and like what you know where is it proposed to to come back to us. Um and uh because I know that we ask you to do a lot a lot of the time. Um so if it it's a if it's a good time absolutely but if there is another time when um you see it fits um into the work plan of the strategic priorities better just let us know.

Yeah and council you're correct at the May 5th meeting we will bring back the um the staff response to the proposed council priorities of which an updated tourism strategy is there. I think the timing uh where it does work well for this year of ELTAC working on this is that um current agreements expiring. So uh I think ELTAC will be having those conversations and again what Council Member Angular as the chair of ELTAC is really seeking is making sure that as the committee works to bring back um something for council consideration would love to get your feedback of. It doesn't have to be in explicit detail, but if there are any high points of what council would hope to see in a tourism strategy, that gives them something to work with. And if they can't accomplish everything, they'll at least be able to respond to here's what we were or what we in our proposal does cover. So, I think having that upfront knowing that there will be uh you won't you won't get a response from ELAC in 3 weeks. It'll it'll then be work that Gungo is ongoing. I think it um the timing works. So uh deputy mayor alrix just to add ltac funds are usually separate funds ltac funds. So my understanding uh city manager you can correct me. My understanding is eltac funds is exclusively different and we can strategize however city council wants. I mean based on the three buckets that I mentioned uh we have events, we have facilities and uh marketing marketing. So just letting you know.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And with that additional context, I'm even more enthusiastic about it coming back as study session soon. So, sounds great. Um, you know, knowing that the agreement's expiring means that if if the timing is right, let's do it. Happy to happy to have that conversation. Are we looking for if we want to have a conversation on the dis before it happens at Eltac or are you looking for here like tell us the things that you care about as I go to have these conversations? We will present a draft strategy on May 5th as long as council wants it.

I think to correct I think what I what I had heard you say was to get council input to help inform a draft. So there will there will be no draft to respond to there. ELTAC won't meet before then, but what you'll have is some input to be able to say as you consider next steps, as you look to explore, um that'll be something that council member Angulari can bring back to the committee to consider. So, this will be an early early conversation. May not be a full study session. Could be just something for council committee discussion, but we'll make sure there's something in the packet so you're you know what you there's clear ask.

Got it. So, you're going to bring something back in the packet and that would be our time to offer those suggestions. Perfect. Yeah, I'm I'm fine with that. Yeah, I think it'll be great to have a broad conversation to help inform building that draft. Um, especially cuz when you start to rework something that's been in place for a long time, I think it's easy to just kind of pull every idea in the universe. So finding what the seven of us generally agree on and then having the experts really deep dive in LTAC seems like a great idea. So yeah, thank you. Yeah, that's what we are looking. Thank you.

I think that's four. So I'm not going to make everybody else raise their hand and say yes also. Um, all right. With that, I would love to uh get a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. I have a motion from Deputy Mayor Alder and a second from Council Member Do. Anybody like to speak to the motion? Seeing none, city clerk. Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angulari, yes. Mayor Thompson, yes. Deputy Mayor Alderks, yes. Council member Kurd, yes. Council member Miles, yes. Council member Dodd, yes. Council member Bal Cabra. Yes. Passes 70.

All right. With that, we are going to um take a break before we get into the rest of our agenda. It is seven. Mayor, would you mind doing the the last thing? It shouldn't be a long like I think we should be able to do it in 5 minutes or less and then we'll absolutely then we'll have study session only. So, we can move at the break. All right. That's right. Ordinances and resolutions. We have agenda bill 26064, a resolution approving professional services supplement number five with WSPUSA, Inc. for the Bothaway Northeast Multimmodal Improvements Project.

Just just briefly, I'll I'll note that um capital projects engineer Rita who is at the table to answer any questions on this agreement and she's joined by Aaron Lenhard, the public works director. Um but ultimately um as has been the case for uh past uh amendments, we've taken this off consent calendar due to uh one of your colleagues uh probably making a making a statement. So anyway, we'll uh we'll let that happen too. But Rita's here to answer any questions you may have.

Okay. Good evening, mayor, council members, and everyone. My name is Rita, supervising capital project engineer. I oversee the project team for the Bosway Northeast multimodel improvements project. Tonight I'm requesting council approval of resolution authorizing the city manager to execute professional services supplement number five with our consultant WSP. This supplement covers additional design services that were not included in the original agreement nor the supplements. This include additional survey, utility potholeing, traffic analysis, geotechnical work, stone drainage design anal and an analysis, war retaining war design, environmental permitting and utility design and coordination. Supplement number five increases the contract by 1.64 64 million, bringing in the design and Royaleway services total to about 10.5 million, approximately 10% of the project's estimated construction cost of 100 million. For a project of this size, design and right away services costs typically range from 10 uh to 15% of the construction cost. That being said, even with this supplement, staff believe this contract is within a reasonable uh industry range. Thank you and I'm happy to answer any question you may have. I am not seeing any questions, but I would love to entertain a motion. Council member Dodd.

I'd like to move the recommended action. Second. I have a motion from Council Member Dodd and a second from Deputy Mayor Alder to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute supplement number five with WSPUSA, Inc. for the both way Northeast Multimmoal Improvements Project in the amount of $1,640,670. It's an oddly specific number. Um, would anybody like to speak to the motion? Mayor. Yes, Council Murd.

Thank you. As you will know, if you've been following along, every contract for WSPUSA, my husband works for WSPUSA and hold retirement account in a uh Canadian stock exchange for WSPUSA. So, I will be abstaining even though our ethics officers have repeatedly assured me that it is not a conflict of interest. Thank you, said Clerk. Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angulari, yes. Mayor Thompson, yes. Deputy Mayor Alderks, yes. Council member Miles, yes. Council member Dodd, yes. Council member Alcabra, yes.

Passes 601 with one recusal and that is council member Kurt. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now, we are going to take a break. Um, it is 7:52 and 18 minutes. 7 810. Yes. And we will return at 8:10. Welcome back. We've got our first of two study sessions tonight. The first one is the parks, recreation, and open space plan update draft findings and feedback. City manager.

Thank you, mayor. We could have reoriented the table this way tonight. I think we've got we've got a a lot of staff coverage on this one. I am going to turn things just directly over to Nick Stroop, our director of the parks and recreation department, though, who will introduce the rest of the team and lead the conversation. Awesome. Well, thank you, Kyle.

All right. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and city council. So tonight, we're really excited to build upon the update we provided in November on the development of our six-year parks, recreation, and open space strategic plan. And we're also very excited to hear some feedback as we work towards refining this planning document for the final approval in July. So joining me tonight are planning and development manager Erin Milner, our recreation and community event coordinator Blaine Land, and planning and capital projects assistant Kai Patnode. So tonight, no council action is requested. Staff are here to provide you with an update building upon what we shared in November while seeking your feedback and conversation on our work to date. So, here is an overview of what we're going to cover tonight. So, first we'll refresh the information that we shared back in November defining the project purpose, discussing why we do this every six years, as well as how we'll use this information to help shape and guide the future of parks in our community. We'll also dive deeper into the outcomes of our community engagement efforts, sharing key takeaways from our community and stakeholder conversations. Next, we'll cover some technical analysis and system needs that we identified in our current park system. And finally, we'll wrap up the conversation with a proposed vision and goals as well as sharing some community feedback on parks capital needs that align and connect the pros plan to our overall imagine both comprehensive plan. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Aaron Milner. Just to quickly recap what we covered in our November council meeting. The parks recreation and open space or pros plan is our long range planning document for

the parks and recreation system. It evaluates current conditions and identifies opportunities for improvement. It is a visionary document that establishes goals and provides the foundation for achieving them. It is an opportunity to engage our community and ensure that our department's values align with our community's values. And finally, it serves as a transparent blueprint that outlines future strategies, projects, policies, and priorities. An update is required every six years to maintain eligibility for state grants through the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office. Our last update was completed in 2020. Community demographics, recreation trends, and community values change over time. Updating the plan ensures the plan evolves with our community. The update also allows us to assess the current condition and performance of our parks, facilities, and infrastru infrastructure so that we can prioritize capital investment needs into the future. The first phase of our project focused primarily on community engagement. During this phase, we hosted an online survey, held a series of popup events throughout our community, conducted focus group discussions with key community partners, and engaged with our parks and recreation board. Council received an update on this work during November meeting and Blaine will speak in more detail about engagement findings in the following slides. The plan development stage which took place over the winter focused on our needs assessment and evaluating the current park systems performance and opportunities for improvement. This evaluation included studying relevant city plans, conducting GIS analysis, examining both's demographics, and evaluating recreational trends. As the circle on the timeline indicates, we are currently in the second engagement window of our engagement process. In this current phase, we are synthesizing all the data collected to date and we have hosted a public

openhouse, met with the parks and recreation board and what and we are holding tonight's study session. Following this engagement window, we will transition into developing the draft plan. Once the draft is prepared, we will return for additional discussion discussions with the parks and recreation board planning commission and council. We are targeting plan adoption in July. Specifics on these next steps will be outlined later in the presentation. I'll now turn it over to Blaine Land who will walk you through our community engagement process and findings. Thank you, Erin, and good evening, council. Over the next few slides, I will share highlights and key findings of our community engagement efforts over the past eight months for the pros plan. I'll walk through the outreach timeline and key activations and highlight emerging themes from the community survey and summarize key insights from our stakeholder workshops. All right. On this slide is the planning timeline. Um um on from left to right, the council will see how we activate um different activities. So since last summer, our core project team hosted four focus groups with regional and local stakeholders. We conducted a community survey through Qualrix receiving 756 responses. In addition, staff hosted eight pop-up events throughout both in Snowomish and King County areas. We shared project status updates and key insights with our both parks and recreation board. And most recently, we held an open house in February to present our findings from the planning and engagement process to the public. In the following slides, I will provide further details pertaining to the findings of this community survey, the events and the stakeholder meetings. Key findings from the community survey. There were several important findings from the community survey and we will highlight six of those takeaways. Our current um on our current park system, it is highly valued and frequently used. It was noted that 88 respondents reporting that they visit the parks either weekly or daily. Respondents also

expressed a desire for continued investment in our trail system. There's a clear support for acquiring additional parkland and open space, including interest in improving former wing golf course and securing property for future dog park. There is also a strong emphasis on expanding park acorage to help address equity gaps across Nomish and King County areas in both. And then another noteworthing finding is that respondents indicated a a desire to expand infrastructure such as an indoor facility that supports year-round programming. Next is a snapshot of emerging themes for recreation and programs. From the recreation and program lens, several common themes emerged from our engagement efforts. Those themes included expanding adult and youth programs. Many of our users indicated that they enjoy parks and open spaces for leisure recreation such as walking, running, biking, and exploring nature. There's much interest in amenities that support dog parks or dog use facilities. It was also incorporating public art is important. Providing access to water and an additional interest was mixeduse sports courts. It is notable that a large percentage of people we heard from visit our parks on the weekends which helps us understand the use and impacts of parks as we navigate future programs. The one area that we also wanted to highlight this evening is the common themes from focus groups. Staff and the project consultant organized four stakeholder workshops which we refer as focus groups. These groups include local and regional partners the city regularly collaborates with representing areas such as volunteerism, recreation, restoration, education, and community leadership. What we gained from these key partners is understanding that they would like for future opportunities to partner and collaborate on program services and facility usage. We also learned that there is an interest in expanding volunteer opportunities throughout our park system. Additionally, there is an understanding and a need for more accessible and equitable offerings. And similar to the

community survey, stakeholders emphasize an importance of an indoor facility that supports year-round programming. And that is my gathering of the community um engagement portion. I'm going to give it over to Kai Patnau to talk about system needs and analysis.

Thank you, Blaine. So now we're going to shift into system needs and a couple key analyses conducted as part of this pros plan process. So, one of the analyses we completed is a walkshed analysis, which looks at where residents in both live within a 10-minute or half a mile walk to a park or open space. This is a standard benchmark for walkable access to parks. In this analysis, we also took into consideration walking barriers, walking barriers to better reflect real world conditions. These included freeways, the Seamish River, and areas with steep slopes. Ultimately, the findings from this walkshed analysis indicate that 50.7% of residences in the city of both are located within that 10-minute or half a mile walkshed to a city park or open space. However, walkshed access is largely skewed towards the King County portion of the city rather than the Snomish County portion. These walksh gaps in Snomish County are especially seen in the top two outlined circles in the figure on the right. Building off that walkshed analysis, we also conducted an equity mapping analysis through the Washington state health disparity mapping tool. This tool evaluates environmental health measures across four major themes. Overall, we found that both ranks relatively low in environmental health disparities. This analysis was compiled into a composite environmental health disparity map and was further overlaid with the walkshed analysis map. While envir while environmental disparities are generally low across the city, some areas are more impacted than others, such as northeast both outlined in the circle on the top right of the figure and southern both outlined at the bottom of the figure. In

correlation, these areas fall largely outside the 10-minute or half a mile walkshed to parks and open spaces in both. So, a few key takeaways to promote equity in our park system emerged as a result of this pros plan process. This includes investing in neighborhoods with greater needs for parks and recreation such as neighborhoods in Snomish County that are not within park and open space walksheds. Providing parks and recreation facilities within a safe walk or access to transit. improving ADA access in our parks and open spaces, reducing economic barriers for lowerincome households, providing inclusive facilities for all abilities, and providing signage and information in multiple languages throughout our system. I'm going to turn it back to Aaron to conclude the presentation. So the intent of benchmarking is to compare both system with pure cities that are similar in size, population, and park system characteristics. The table on this slide summariz summarizes key metrics across the selected comparison cities of Lacy, Lynwood, and Perion. While the study examined a broad broader set of metrics, a few highle takeaways stand out from this table. Both provides the fewest total parks 20 and the lowest park acreage 180 among these peers. Both partially offsets this lower park acreage by providing a relatively higher amount of open space acreage 203 acres which exceeds both Lynwood and Birian. Despite this, both also has a comparatively low percentage of city land area dedicated to park and open space overall 4.4% 4% percent and our walkshed gap as Kai described earlier is

more pronounced than our comparable peer cities. So Basel's population is projected to grow significantly as shown in the graph on the left. Our population is expected to reach approximately 54,000 residents by 2029 and exceed 80,000 by 2044 as outlined in the comp plan. Level of service is defined as the amount of park acreage per 10,00 residents. BAFOL currently provides 3.5 acres of parkland per 10,000 residents. To maintain this current level of service, as our population grows, the city must also expand its park system. Looking at the row labeled total in the table, Both will need an additional 10 and a half acres of parkland by 2029 to maintain today's level of service. By 2044, population growth will require securing 100 additional acres to continue providing our current level of surface of 3.5 acres per 1,000 residents. As our population grows, use pressures of our parks and open space will increase if additional park acreage and capacity do not keep pace. So wrapping up what we heard through our work to date, we've developed a preliminary draft vision and goals plan. This draft vision is based on four themes we consistently heard through the community engagement and identified through our needs analysis. These themes being diversity, equity, resiliency, and stewardship. This vision described the type of parks and recreation system both wants to grow into ensuring that policies, projects, and future investments support this direction. I'll give you a moment to read that for a second.

The plan goals translate the vision into clear areas of focus that will guide many of the strategies you will see in the upcoming plan. The first goal is maximize our current system. This means making the most of what we already have and ensuring the existing system is utilized to the fullest extent possible. The second goal, take care of the existing system. Here we are looking at things like increasing maintenance capacity and continuing to build volunteer opportunities so we can maintain the parks and open spaces we already have. The third goal, enhance recreation enrichment. This could include hosting more community and cultural events, strengthening park partnerships for recreation programming, and expanding outdoor education opportunities. And finally, the fourth goal, invest in the future. This includes addressing the walkshed gap, acquiring open space for preservation, improving the trails network, and funding needed capital projects. This slide provides a high-level overview of many of our current and anticipated capital projects. It is not intended to represent the full list of projects within the capital facilities plan. Its purpose is to help identify priority projects for planning discussions. Council will have multiple opportunities to provide budgetary input as part of the upcoming 2023 CFP update. That project will identify funding sources and timing for all parks capital improvement projects. As is shown on the slide, the left column indicates two upcoming projects. The inclusive playground at Cedar Grove Park and Madzo Park that are fully funded. The park at both landing project and Wayne open space action plan both have secured funding for design work though construction funding has not yet been identified. The visionary project projects represent projects which dedicated funding has not yet been secured but there is a clear anticipated

need based on community growth input and past planning efforts. Throughout the engagement phases, we have used similar visuals to help the community consider how these projects should be prioritized. Overall, our community has shared broad interest across all project categories, indicating strong community support for continued investment in Bosel's park system. So, this slide outlines the remaining steps leading to adoption of the pros plan. April 21st marks tonight's study session where we are seeking feedback on preliminary findings. On May 14th, we will return to the parks and recreation board for review and final recommendations. On May 20th, the planning commission will review the plan. On June 2nd, we will bring the final recommendation back to city council for review and a public hearing will on the final draft is scheduled for June 16th. We are targeting July 7th for council adop adoption of the pros plan. The plan will then be delivered to the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office for final review to ensure the plan meets RCO's planning criteria. So to close the presentation, we'd like to highlight three primary questions for council's consideration this evening. First, does the council have questions regarding what we heard through our community engagement process? Second, is there anything we may be missing within our capital project prioritization? And third, are the draft vision and goals in line with the council's direction for the future of parks and recreation? We are happy to answer any questions or receive comment on these items or any other topics within the presentation. So once again, no action is required tonight. Staff are providing an update and seeking fe feedback on the progress of the pros plan development. Thank you.

I had a quick question about the walkshed map. Um, one thing that those areas all have in common is they border other jurisdictions and other agencies that do have parks. Do you have did you take into account like I'm thinking about like Miners Corner Park is very accessible to some folks in Southeast both northeast both. This is all I don't know I'm already turned around. Um, but was that part of the analysis or is that something you'll use when you look at acquiring parkland?

This is a pretty high level overview of the walkshed analysis. We in in this this analysis, we did not consider uh other jurisdictions and other agencies that provide recreation services to our community. However, in the plan, you'll see that information included. So, this specifically, we're looking at both park and open space inventory. Yeah. And I and I wouldn't just to be super clear like if someone's watching this 5 years from now because they are very bored. Um I I I'm not saying like we shouldn't put a park where there's like another jurisdictions park. But if we have to serve a lot of areas that have gaps, I'd want to start with like the darkest gaps where there's not even someone else stepping in. So,

yes, along those lines of um the the walkshed map. Um I really like that analysis that you've used. Um, and so is it as simple as saying there's three areas of our city that need parks and so we might propose three new parks or are is the analysis more in depth and um able to target like and say this area needs multiple parks to in in order to like achieve equity. I'm I'm just wondering like is it really as simple as one three circles three parks or is it three circles more parks?

Um most likely three circles and more parks. So um we looked at I guess going back we looked at like that kind of half mile walkshed. So the ideal goal and the standard benchmark is to provide a park that's provide parks for all residents to be within half a mile so that there would be more parks within those gaps there.

Okay. I love hearing that. And I'm also wondering when you were looking at the underserved areas of the city, are you also taking into account like transportation options that are nearby and like placement near bus lines and and trails? Yes, that's something we'll look at when we're analyzing our opportunities for acquisition.

Cool. All right. Well, I will ask a couple the other questions that I have in here. Um, one gap that I I saw especially from the community budget survey was that um that festival community festivals and events were highly rated like the most highly rated thing in like when people provided feedback on the parks. Um, and I'm wondering was that simil was similar feedback found in the pros plan feedback that you've done? Um, and like I did I guess I just didn't see it named in the presentation. So I'm wondering like is there a difference between the two samples? Um, or is that a pretty consistent want from the community? Yeah. So in the final report you will see kind of a breakdown of our services. Um, community events and festivals were rated high. um going from the the traditions that we have the Fourth of July and summer nights but within the services that we current currently provide festivals and events came up but there is a desire for additional programs that are nonvent related such as recreation of programs but you definitely see that at the higher end of services.

Yeah. And just as a as a resident and talking to folks who live here, I I can say that that's what I consistently hear like yes, recreational programming, classes, workshops, right? And uh festivals and events like it's definitely a both and from the community.

Thank you for your presentation. uh as we reviewed the packet as I reviewed the packet uh I the uh one question I had as you were going u the second round and I was going through your when you were going through your vision and goals you mentioned there are population growths in two year uh three years and then there's 20 years um or 2044 18 years are your goals and vision for the two the three years or they for the 20 years from now like what are you trying to accomplish with this pros plan and you said it's every six years we have to renew so there's like three timelines that we're talking about what is the one that we are trying to address with this particular plan

so I guess in response to that question I would say that it's really just to illustrate a a trend that we anticipate seeing you know it's a it's a challenge that we have and I think there's more than one way to to deal with that challenge. Some of it could be through partnerships with some of our other partner agencies, for example. It could be there's recreation services that are offered already. It could be partnering with our school districts. It could be a very it could be a a number of different options moving forward. So, I wouldn't get too tied up in the exact dates and those targets, but it's more how do we how do we deal with the the pressures that we're going to experience as our population grows over time. I I agree. I was specifically thinking I should have clarified uh when we talk about park acquisition in the north part of the city that requires lead time, that requires budgeting and savings and all the like how do we are we going to address that?

Yeah. So, as you as you know, we're we are actively pursuing the Shelton View Forest. That's a 25 acre uh parcel, and that is in the Snowomish County portion of both. It's not the only area, but it is the one that's immediate that we know the most information about. We do have some our eyes on some other pieces of property, and we're trying to do some just initial uh investigation to understand those properties better and see if that they may uh perhaps be a fit for our park system.

Uh thank you. The reason I asked the question is sorry I don't mean to ask it's uh we say 50% walkshed 50% population that's and compared to the other cities um extremely low you know so I think uh u and the timelines the growth trajectory is very fast so I I feel like we need to act fast

so I I attribute part of that to we annexed uh into the snowish county portion in the n early 90s 1993 to be exact and and you know prior to that um you know we were all King County so we had most of our parks investments in King County.

Since then we've added Centennial Park, we've added Cedar Grove Park. Uh we added Stipc Park which I know is kind of right on the border literally. Um you know we we've added some some amenities but we're we're not caught up. We're not there yet. Um there's a lot of opportunity in Snowomish County. Uh but you do have to act fast like you said and that's that's one of the challenges that we have when we get into acquisition is that developers are tend to be a little quicker than our government process. But we are actively like I said looking at a couple um you know potential properties and trying to understand a little bit better uh what those are and how they might fit into our system. to council member Alcopra's point. Um like I I think the way I understood your question was um like are we looking at park acquisition before 2029? Um, and then I'm to just build on that like I'm wondering is it a decent goal and is it possible to acquire and plan for three new parks before like in the in this time planning horizon and we could have one in each area and just start there because I think your question like when you answered my question it was more of like well obviously by 2020 or 2044 we need more than three new parks. Um, but is it possible to do three parks within this pros plan? That's my question and I'm wondering what my colleagues think about that too.

So, I think I think anything's possible. Again, it comes into funding. It comes into, you know, how we we go about that. One of the things that I know we've talked about is a possible levy and that can help with acquisition. We also have park impact fees which are um can be used for acquisition. Uh, you know, we have a lot of projects though and we have to kind of like figure out what what most makes sense. I I would say right now that, you know, we we are looking again at Shelton View. That's a 25 acre park. We're looking to add five additional acres to the uh Wayne open space with property that King County bought and wants to transfer to us at zero cost. Um, so that that's a good thing. That's a but it's it is, you know, upland. um it's not active parks use so it's it's more of a passive type thing but yeah I I would say that it is possible

and this this conversation is part of the capital facilities plan process update as well I mean these acquisition is identified within our current CFP and it'll be proposed to you in this upcoming update as well

I was going to ask um when uh council bro was talking about like the the expected population growth we had a lot of maps that we reviewed as part of the comp plan. I think that's a fair statement. Um, and you know, there's a lot of different higher density zoning that went out with that. Um, is part of the plan too to overlay. I know I'm like, what about this map and that map? But I'm wondering about really um, as far as soon acquisitions, nearby acquisitions, um, trying to plan ahead for areas that will see more density and like where that disparity will grow. Is that something that'll be part of that process? But I also realize you can't make land appear for sale where you want it, but I'm wondering if that helps you highlight areas at all.

The the plan is looking at density and it has looked at density within this walkshed as well. Um I will say Canyon Park area is probably one of those areas that we kind of circle and highlight a few times for various reasons. Uh one of those being projected growth. Um, so yeah, I mean we are taking in consideration density. And then for park impact fees, I know at one point we were able to use some of the um fire impact fees for some of the new station builds. Like it do you have money saved from those? Has they been have they been used as they come in? What's kind of the status?

Yeah. So um we'll have this discussion when we get into our capital facilities plan. We'll talk about our park impact fees, what we currently have in the balance, and then what we're projecting to use over the next seven years. So, um there there will be some some dollars that are left over for opportunities or for projects that we've identified but have not funded yet. So, there are conversations to be had about how we use that those funds.

Okay. Um I have two more questions at this time. I might ask more later. Um, I wonder sometimes. So, if you go look at the whole list, there's I'm just going to pick on the Hannes open space. Like, what's the deal there? Could that be a park or is it It seems like it might be kind of swampy. Like, what what's the plan for that if there is one or what could it be used for?

Yeah, it's not currently on our our priorities of, you know, the the projects that we're working on, but it certainly could be passive use recreation. So, anytime you have an open space, typically it can be like think of like trails, um perhaps a small picnic area, things like that. You're not going to be able to develop a like full-size park with, you know, playgrounds and all those other amenities, but certainly passive use and, you know, think of trails connecting to neighborhoods. I know at one point we had a conversation about that specific property and how it might connect on the backside to a park up in West Hill. Well, and there's a lot of stuff being built around it, too, which seems like it could be a good little natural respit spot. But, um, the other thing is when we talk about parkland, so growing up in one of the ovals, um, living in one of the ovals, um, we use schools as our playgrounds, right? Um, and I'm wondering if we've ever explored some kind of agreement with the school district like, hey, we'll have someone clean up, you know, the playground Sundays if you make sure that it's open on the weekend for people to go out there like, or we'll put in, you know, newer equipment, you know, like a partnership. I don't know. I I don't mean I I don't want the city manager to freak out that I'm proposing a new thing. Um, but I just wonder if there's kind of a way we can do more good for the schools and for those neighborhoods. Yeah, I I think that's excellent feedback and it's certainly something that we're very interested in. We haven't had in-depth conversations with the school district, but completely agree that there's opportunities there and those facilities are frequently used. I mean, if you look up in the oval there in that northeast corner that we identified, that that large gap, people they recreate up there at the schools. So there's there's a uh elementary school and there's a middle school that are located up in that very northeast corner and that is what they use for recreation. But I do think there's

opportunities there. Thanks.

And one of the things we were really encouraged by through our focus group sessions was the willingness of of the schools in our area to partner with us on these opportunities. So something we're really excited about. Thank you for the presentation. I brought this up during this last CFP process. It was a long time ago and it probably didn't hit the right moment. So, we talk about acquisition of Parkland area and you mentioned that you have your eyes as a department on a couple properties. We're not going to let you spill the beans on the mic, but would it be helpful to have uh an acquisition sort of strategy or some parameters or guard rails or interest what we would be looking for? Obviously, we're guided by um the lack of parkland in the ovals, right? But um really getting down further and in light of my commitment to start conversations in in um in this part of the meeting, um are there other um things that folks are thinking about what they would want in a park acquisition? Um what are you what's your ideal property that would be acquired? I'll start us off because I was thinking about this before. Um, I see an opportunity to expand connections to trails as a park opportunity. So whether that's a conservation sort of easement or a recreation easement on um a kind of vacant property that could connect um roadways that have um sidewalks or whatever to park areas through a

corridor. I'm thinking of like I know that the city doesn't own the the Seamish River Trail, but there's the eco blocks, right? So there's these like opportunities to connect and expand our park areas. So I would think that would be something that I'd want to put into a strategy like that. Does anybody else have other ideas or suggestions for something like that?

I like that a lot. This is a yes and we have I was I was glad to see one of the areas we were leading in that chart of comparable cities was open space. And I think that it's I'm also glad that we are working on the Shelton View forest as more open space. I think we have a big lack of playgrounds um in a lot of the city and um I think after Shelton View Forest and barring like opport just good opportunities for connections because I think that's really important, we should get land that isn't so encumbered with what we can build on it. I think that that's kind of a struggle um that has come through in a lot of these discussions I've been in. Um and I think it's really fun to work on the park at BA Landing and these sort of like great parks, but like um I don't know when I'm in Edmonds, for example, they have a lot of cute little neighborhood parks that are just where you go, right? And I think one thing that that has changed from my childhood in both is we don't have um we have a lot more planned communities that go up with their own private playground. And I'm wondering if there's also an opportunity to work on I don't know if it would be like public space like we have in our downtown code, but something that that lets those communities build a park for everyone or puts money into a fund like something like that. So instead of just a private park for these 20 homes, a private park for these 30 homes, something for the neighborhood, right, that brings everybody together because you don't just get to know and go to school with the 20 homes in your development. It's your whole neighborhood. So that's kind of a weird gap that's arisen. I think since I was a kid, we've had a lot more subdivisions go in.

I think I have multiple questions. Uh it starts with the vein park the old buildings that we have I think as part of 2531 capital facilities plan we were supposed to demolish those old buildings right when are we expected to demolish those? Those are planned for demolition this summer. This summer. Okay. Okay. And this uh Okay. So that's like definitely it's going to happen this time. I mean like I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the reason is we've been looking at them last 8 years. I mean I'm just trying to see

Yeah. I can maybe expand on that a little bit. So there is a process that we have to go through when we look to demo buildings. So you have to do a cultural resources survey. You have to understand um is there any environmental concerns? Is there anything in the house that if you demolish it that you have to you know remediate before you you can actually take it down? And so we've gone through a number of steps um in order to get to where we're at today. We've had determinations made that, you know, we could we could actually demolish the buildings. They're not historic. Um those types of things. Um so it's just a process, but we are getting really close and we are we are really close to submitting those demolition permits and our plan right now is to have those down the summer.

Got it. How long it takes once you guys start the working? Uh it it's a relatively quick process. Uh once once the you know they they've set up on site it's it's pretty quick. So hopefully we'll we'll see this year end of this year it will be gone for sure.

Understand. Okay. Uh on the vein park can we do anything activating the four acropel? I know it's a long so the reason is a lot of my lot of my neighbors keep asking one bottle acquired in 2018 last 8 years I I know everything takes time just trying to understand like last 8 years I mean please don't like I know I'm making a interesting statements right now we are last 8 years we've been lo mowing the lawn basically mowing the lawn so When do when do our residents see some changes res uh like in the next 5 years 10 years it's already 8 years we already lost I mean can we do phase wise like a small I know we we are using the restoration I think we are working on the restoration just wondering can we do few things one by one wherever we can do anything possible

yeah I would just point to the fact that we currently are doing our Wayne uh master planning efforts And that's that community effort to really understand what people want to see in that space. And so we're having those conversations with the community. We had a really well attended open house where we had over 150 residents here talking about that. So there's a ton of interest. Again, it is a process. So in order for us to do things we need to make sure that we have gone through those community processes so that we can be you know um ready for uh opportunities for grants that the the things that actually can fund some of those those activities.

The reason I'm also asking maybe for the city manager do we need additional resources as part of the budget? I mean we have lot of interest. What I mean is we we we saw the surveys everybody loves what we do. Absolutely no doubt you guys do an amazing job. I think there's a lot of appetite from our residents to see more. Do we need more budget? Do we need more resources so that this can be faster? I mean, I'll I'll I'll turn it over to park staff, but the one thing I do want to just interject on too, and it kind of gets to the point that Director Stup was making is that I think we've also we've heard from our community in the past of um decisions being made about the former Wayne golf course that when we don't include the community in the conversation and we go fast, it doesn't work very well. So, I think there's this balance between I hear you on the eight years and that's part of the master planning process that we're going through is to make sure that we go through it together. So I think we'll start seeing some momentum build and go and I'll in terms of the funding aspect of that I'll certainly turn it over to Erin for to talk about the capital needs.

Yeah and as you saw in that capital prioritization slide I mean that's one of the projects as partially funded. we have funding for the design for the master planning process at which point uh we'll take that back to council and there'll be some opportunities for council to to weigh in on next steps um capital facilities processes coming up this year as far as future funding opportunities go. I would also point out that in that eight-year process, we had a global pandemic in which our park staff was reduced and it took I don't think we're even still back to the levels we used to be. We're better than we were at the bottom, but like for a couple years there, we were in survival mode and just trying to get everything out. And this is one of the first things that we're doing after the both landing master plan coming out of that. So, if people are like, "What happened in the last eight years?" Well, some stuff happened. I'd point that out as well. So in that area can we do like a fairs like uh will that be active use like if you want to do agriculture fairs or arts and crafts fairs or anything are we allowed or we are not allowed

that that's a great question and I think when we look at projects typically they we do phase them because it comes into sort of the question about funding. So sometimes we'll secure some funding for a very specific item uh which we'll be able to do before we can do the other items or sometimes we find the funding for the entire park and we can do all of that work at once. But with the size of the Wayne open space, it likely would be a phase project just because you you have 89 acres. You're working on you know sort of two properties that are separated by a road. Um so it definitely would be a phase project. So yeah, I mean uh on the back n I think uh back n I I know we can't do much active. I think last time we talked about we may need to buy back from King County if you want it. Is that something we can at least have as part of pros plan? like can we look into it if we want to have a parking space on the back n I'm talking about the opposite to

so as part of the agreements that we have in place we actually can have trail amenities in the back n so just in that 5 acre parcel where the current uh where the old uh caretakers place and there used to be a orchard right there so at that we can have trail head amenities so that could be something like you know some minor parking a facility Yeah, perhaps some kiosk or something like that or a small picnic area where people could rest.

Yeah. All I'm saying is can we like I don't know think out of the box if even if it needs more money and if we need to buy back the rights from King County I can we at least put it in the plan because we only see this plan again every six years as part of your team if if we can look into it at least whether we do it or not it's a different story. Oh, to acquire the rights maybe it takes 10 million. Where do we get the 10 million? That's the next question. But at least if we have a number uh at least we can look into it. Oh, let's have a parking lot there. Maybe we can have like 50 cars or 100 cars. But right now we can't build I think as part right now we only have four acres active. Can we expand that four acres? Instead of four acres, can we do it 10 acres? But I

I don't think there's a path forward to do 10 acres of expansion particularly on that back portion. Okay. Um there certainly there is a path but it's intentionally difficult um to buy that back and that's because you know the idea was we're going to conserve it forever in perpetuity. So um the funding that we used is very you know targeted in that area. So it it's not impossible. I'll say that. But it it's expensive as far as giving you a price. I can't do that because we won't know the details of that until we actually go through a process like that to determine what those costs would be.

I'm looking for other fellow council members inputs to just my thoughts. I'm just sharing. Uh yeah, thank you. I'll just say since we're on this slide that um I'm I'm happy to leave conversations about Wayne to the Wayne master plan conversations um because it's kind of like like nesting dolls, right? A plan within a plan. Um and so we have we know how we're going to move forward in that area. Um and so I don't necessarily want to like dig in too much here. Um, but on slide 22, um, in looking at the funded projects in progress, I'm wondering if you have if there are groundbreaking scheduled for the two parks yet, Cedar Grove and, uh, Lieutenant Madazzo Park.

Uh, the the inclusive playground is currently in uh, construction, documentation, design phase right now. Uh we'll be wrapping up design uh this this fall and hoping to go to construction next spring. Uh Madzo Park is currently in permitting. We're still hoping to be able to break ground this year and be completed by this winter. And to answer your question directly, yes, we will definitely have a groundbreaking ceremony. That was yeah, an assumption like they're fun. Golden shovels.

The golden shovels. They're they are fun events to bring our community together. Those are the times when we get to celebrate the work that is being done and invite our community to participate. So I I'm not you know I I think they're valuable and I look forward to it. So what you're saying is that maybe groundbreaking for Lieutenant Madzo Park fall late summer. It' be later than that at the earliest winter. Okay. So, it's vague, but you're gonna tell us and it'll be on our calendars. I appreciate that before you have to run again. That's not my concern. I just want something to look forward to.

And and not only that, you we'll be bringing back once we go out for bids, we'll be bringing back those bids to council for your review. Will the This is now we're just talking about Cedar Grove. Um, will the ball fields and stuff be accessible during construction?

Yeah, I mean, we we intend to keep the ball fields accessible. There will be probably some interruptions to the current picnic uh the shelter area uh because that whole sort of area will be under construction. But again, we have a we have a decent amount of space out there and we'll try to keep as much amenities open as we can as we do the the construction and and move forward.

Yeah. And I mean, safety is the most important. So, um I was just curious about that. Um, I will say as far as the um capital facilities plan, I definitely wouldn't want to see it sort of continue to feel very King Countyheavy like before we like if we were to look at spending $10 million on Wade. I I would really want us to focus on the underserved areas of the city. I think the fact that that I'm going to say I'm going to say y'all, even though it wasn't all four of you particularly, managed to conserve that land in response to community concerns is amazing, but we can't spend all of our park money on one spot or in one county. So, I I am looking forward to a CFP that really serves the whole city. I'll second that. I continue to have the question to my fellow council members what you'd like to prioritize in an acquisition strategy because if item D of the vision is to invest in the future if we're writing into the plan that we're going to be spending money on future park park opportunities we're going to need to act quickly. in order to jump on property that comes available. So, if we're not thinking or sharing what we want to see in a potential acquisition, it's setting us up for um long conversations under um under narrow time time constraints. So, um what are you interested in if you haven't talked? What are you interested in for potential acquisition? What's an ideal And if I may jump in real quick, Council

Member Burd, we did hear you in the last council meeting and so an acquisition strategy is part of this plan. I don't have a lot to share with you today, but we have done some GIS analysis on um characteristics that make up a good park land and characteristics that make up good open space. I heard encumbered properties being one of those that fit well within open space acquisition priorities. And there will also be some strategies uh associated with those recommendations. That was going to be my my response is I need more information before I can make a determination or provide requirements. Uh

dream I I am not not a this is not the time I can dream right now. So, I don't recall Ramy being an NT.

Council member Kurt, I'm in the same boat as council member Alcabra. I can't dream aloud, unfortunately. I need a little bit more data. I am um I would just say I know that parks is working on this right now and I don't know if this is something that we're going to solve in this study session right now but like I I think we all would like to set them up for success as we go forward and we look at acquisitions and I think a big part of that is going to be what you're talking about like to get those parameters. So is that a conversation that we can tee up as part of going through this process and is that a conversation that we can have with some preparation and um in in the appropriate time so we are prepared and can do good work.

Yeah, absolutely. I think we can bring that forward whether it's a staff report with questions. It may not be a full study session but um be able to provide you with that acquisition strategy uh beforehand so that you have some time to sort of you know absorb it and and you know have a conversation about it. I'm going to council member Kurt. Does that line up with what you're looking for? I'm really trying to get us to have conversation rather than the litany of questions. So, okay, if you have other ideas for this or the next study session, I welcome them. Or we could sit here and decide to deci to design that conversation as a conversation.

Um, I was just going to add uh we are not um young at this table. We are not the most active park users when it comes to especially active recreation. I'm sorry. Um, Deputy Mayor Meredith, you are the youngest person I know. Um, but we uh I maybe you could help us with visuals and ideas. I am at the age now where I tell my kid merrygorounds were more fun when I was a kid cuz I think they were more dangerous. Um, so I think helping us figure out what's possible because I assume you guys are at parks and talking about them a lot more often um would maybe be helpful. I'm thinking that's part of the gap here.

I do love fun pictures. Um, that was one of that was, you know, favorite part of planning commission. And I'm going to totally make a planning commission tie-in right now because I remember when we were talking about the Canyon Park sub area um that there was like it's kind of built into that plan of what's possible there is if there's going to be a future pavilion um and some open space. There should also be a playground um for the the mixeduse housing um and you know development that's going to be happening in that area. So, I would absolutely be looking in the Canyon Park sub area for a space that um that lends itself to, you know, public public space, open space, and a playground. Um, and I am going to kind of uh connect my next comments to what council member Kurd said about looking for kind of naturally occurring spaces where it makes sense to put a park. Um, and I'm going to use an example from Seattle. Um, I lived in the Ravena neighborhood at the time when the Ravena playground was uh built and installed right along the fringe of of the the park, like the the trail area. I see Matt shaking his head back there. Um, and and it makes sense to me that if it's like it it was perfect. I spent so much time at that park with my kids and in the you know down in the ravine and and um and it was such a great opportunity that hadn't been there before. So like I remember what it was like when we had to like take these rickety stairs down into the ravine and walk like a mile and a half to go over to the other one that was like on 15th or whatever whatever it was. It's been a long time. My oh my goodness. My that child is an adult now. Um, but when we got the newer playground, we didn't have to walk as far. Um,

and we still spent time in the ravine and we still like we made it like part of our stop, right? We would like go to the go to the one playground, walk through, go to the other playground, and then walk back and then play at the playground, then go home. Um, because that's what you do with toddlers. And um, and so I guess I'm using that as an example. Clearly, I remember this very vividly. Um, but where are along our like Shelton View for example, is there a space along Shelton View where it might make sense to like while the rest might be protected and conservation area, but to acquire a a property right next to it that we could put a park on so that it feels like the playground is connected to the forest, is connected to Wayne, is connected to North Creek um forest, right? like in those areas. I would I would look along those areas and use the Ravena playground as an example of that. Sorry for the very long description. I was going to add to as far as like maximizing the land we have. If we have open space and we can add a picnic table, could we add Okay, so as an adult, the biggest delight I've had at public open space are these swings at the Kraken place arena, whatever in uh Northgate. There's just bench swings and you just sit on them and they're amazing. Um I'm happy to go down as the person most excited about these bench swings. Um but like could we put some of those in an otherwise natural area, right? Like like fun rest like um I just I think it'd be cool to have like just some more surprise delight moments um as far as maximizing our land goes. So the second question are there any gaps we need to address in the capital

project prioritization? Uh did I miss anything in the packet? Is there a slide where we have a financial information? Each project cost let's say $10 million. We are funded 5 million. We are shortage of 5 million by project. So overall for that because we meet we will meet again in the next six years. Is there any information that I'm missing in the package so that I can allocate it by project or overall we need 100 million but we only have 50 million. We are shortage of 50 million and this is what we are looking for.

Yeah, I think that's an excellent question. I think it's probably more appropriate for the capital facilities plan in the budget conversation because that's where we'll talk about the funding. We'll talk about, you know, what we have available, where we're at with projects, the life of projects. So, for example, I mean, I can give you some examples. We do have numbers, but I don't know that it it is um I think it would just be better suited for that conversation, but there's a number of projects that we do. So, we have like the unfunded, we have funded in progress, but we don't really know the end, you know, cost of those projects. So, for example, on the funded projects, we still have to go out to bid. So, we have an estimate. We've gone through design. We have a pretty good idea of what we think it's going to cost, but we really don't know until we go out to bid to understand what those bottom line costs are. For the unfunded projects that are in motion, we have um, you know, funded the design piece of it, but we haven't funded the construction piece of it. So, the design really helps us figure out sort of a really best guessed estimate of what it's going to cost to move this project forward based on the amenities that the community wants to see there. But again, it requires that we go out for, you know, a bidding process to truly understand what that bottom line price tag is going to be. I can get into like, you know, how much money we've spent. I can tell you from, you know, this date forward. I can tell you how much money we have left on contracts, all of that stuff. But I do think it's it's probably more appropriate for that capital facilities plan conversation in the budget.

So is that for two years or is it for 60 six years? The capital facilities plan. So uh well it it covers seven years. So yeah. So but we review it every two years.

Okay. And I was just going to note we've made a couple references to the to the upcoming budget conversation. And since dates matter, just for council to be aware, um May 19th, we'll be having the entire council meeting focused on budget conversations, including a section uh where we'll be workshopping capital facilities plan items throughout the the CFP. And then also, if there is interest of studying ahead and kind of seeing what's in the current plan, um on page uh 35 of the currently adopted CFP is where the parks and recreation section starts. so I can send a follow-up email to the council just so you can refresh your information and then next month we'll have a rich dialogue.

Just wanted to follow up on your on your response to um so you said there's a prerequisite to go to bid to be able to get a much tighter um idea of what is expected to cost. So when we go through the CFB process, are you going to be bidding and getting those ideas?

No. So how so those are you know once you've gone through construct design construction documentation and permitting then you go out to bid the project. So they're specific to each project. What we're going to be able to tell you is that you know some of these projects that we have in our current capital facilities plan have gone through design. So, we have a pretty good idea of what those estimated costs are going to be and how we could fund that or how we could, you know, phase that out on a on a seven-year period. Um, but until you actually go out to bid, you're not going to know the precise and then you have the conversation. I understand. So, for example, let's go uh BL Park improvements. Yeah.

Is has any design happened on that? Do we have an idea how much it's going to cost? So a number of years ago there was a master plan uh that was put together. Um again it was before we were a official parks department. So um there there are some ideas those those estimates change though similar to the park at BA landing when we went through the process in 2010 we were looking at a 12 to$15 million project. Fast forward to today. Yeah it's crazy those costs have gone up. So because if we do have all those nine nine unfunded uh visionary projects, there might be even more once we go through the ideation that

yeah this this is not meant to capture all of those but we'll have those discussions at the capital facilities plan and there are opportunities to perhaps look at some of those and use the existing funding that we have but it it again requires council conversation and oh indeed but then how are we we need some information to be able to prioritize and we'll be providing that. Yep. Do you I would I would just real quick um suggest that we try to keep the conversation as much toward the actual discussion that we're having right now. I know we've all got a lot of stuff that we want to talk about, but we have a whole another study session after this and it is 9:15.

He did they did ask what what are our priorities? Are they good? So, it's just related to that. Um, as I'm listening to this conversation, it is very clear to me, I'm I'm reminded that it would be really lovely if we had a youth council who could off like who who could do this same experience, the same study session, and we could hear from young people um who are closer to this topic. Um, and I know that's bless you. I know that's part of our um council council priorities. And so like maybe by the maybe well like I I guess this is I'm going to set this goal out. I would love to see us have the next time we do a pros plan that there's a youth coun council in place that you can consult with and and work with in providing feedback and preparing um you know preparing this kind of a study session for us is that it would already have been vetted by by young people in our community. Um so that came to mind and then one like one question around the engagement part is um like will you at some point come back to us and tell us what the next engagement park is part is going to look like or are you able to describe like what you plan on doing for like that you said that there was a next window in what March May of this year what are what are you planning for that

yeah Kai do you mind going to the timeline for the engagement Perfect. So the first capture Oh, right there. Perfect. Um when we started the program, our first segment of engagement window, you can see from June to November, that was the public outreach platform of outreach um engagement. The second window of engagement is more so board, commission, and council. We did provide a February open house as noted on this slide. So from the public standpoint is we've achieved all engagement endeavors um at this point. I appreciate the clarification that that helps me kind of understand what to what to expect going forward.

And so like that this then engagement window includes like the public hearing and the public comment at council meetings. Okay, makes sense.

All right. Do you guys have what you need? Thank you so much. Yep. We really appreciate this. I didn't have much to say cuz I think it looks really good. So, thank you. Thank you. Um, I actually would like to motion that maybe we delay the next study session to another meeting and not stay later tonight because I'm listening to our mayor like suffer over here.

Um, and and yeah, I know that I know that I've been through a lot lately and I would appreciate an earlier night than a late night. So, I'm just going to put it out there for the both of us. I second do I just restarted my computer, so I can't look at the projected agenda. Like, what does what does it look like next week? I mean, we have everybody here and

Yeah, there's definitely um I think our next four meetings are are pretty full, but we can that that that's why we have Laura Hathaway, so we can certainly look at rep prioritization. I think this update for um for downtown parking while certainly of interest for council too, there's um really a big touch point of the uh conversation is to prepare us for the fall for budget conversations as well. So we can look at how to reshuffle and rep prioritize and do our best if that's the will if if council's looking to to move forward. Um, alternatively, we could also potentially have uh the staff give the presentation and then uh invite follow-up conversations another way, but um that can be kind of difficult. I know it's better to have the conversation. So, if if the desire is is to push it back, we can rep prioritize.

Just a quick question. How much time it takes if we start? I mean, like just I don't know. I think it's budgeted for an hour. Oh, okay. Yes. Yes. If we could push it off because it doesn't make sense to break up the conversation if it's budgeted for an hour. I think we would want full time to ask questions and have a full discussion. Agree. I'm totally fine with that. And I will just say my apologies to the staff who have been waiting to present on this particular agenda item for the last hour.

Yeah. I realize this is an unorthodox approach, but I also know that it is within our power as a council to decide how like how late our meetings go. And so I would like to exercise that power to be kind to ourselves. I would love to call it a night right now bluntly. So all right, I got your back. With that, we're adjourned. Oh, wait. Do we need to vote on Okay, we're not adjourned. Just kidding. Motion in a second. You guys have a motion in a second. You do need to dispose of the motion in a second. Once you got a motion on the table, you got to get rid of it one way or another. So, how do you get So, we would vote. Vote. Roll call.

Vote. So, we need I'll second it. I can do that, right? No, he seconded. He's got Okay, perfect. Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angular. Yes. Mayor Thompson. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alderks. Yes. Council uh Council Member Kurt. No. Council member Miles. Yes. Council member Dodd. No. Council member Alabra. Yes. Passes 61 with Council Member Dodd. Uh desending. Two. Oh. 52.

52. Who was the other one? Sorry, it's late. Thank you. With council members Kurt and Dodd desending. And now we are adjourned.